The study demonstrates that short‑term low phosphate treatment delays leaf senescence in rice by increasing photosynthetic pigments, enhancing antioxidant enzyme activities, and reducing oxidative damage, whereas high phosphate accelerates senescence. CRISPR/Cas9 editing of MIR827 to lower Pi levels also postpones senescence, while overexpression of MIR827 or MIR399, which raises Pi, speeds it up. Transcriptomic profiling reveals coordinated changes in senescence‑associated and metabolic pathways underlying the low‑phosphate response.

The study compared narrow-band laser diode (LD) lighting with broad-band LED lighting under monochromatic blue and combined red‑blue spectra in tobacco, lettuce, and Arabidopsis, finding that LDs reduced photosynthetic rates but improved canopy architecture and delayed lower‑leaf senescence. When red and blue were combined, LD lighting mitigated continuous‑light stress and enhanced growth, chlorophyll content, and overall plant health, highlighting spectral bandwidth as a key lever for indoor horticulture.

The authors used a bottom‑up thermodynamic modelling framework to investigate how plants decode calcium signals, starting from Ca2+ binding to EF‑hand proteins and extending to higher‑order decoding modules. They identified six universal Ca2+-decoding modules that can explain variations in calcium sensitivity among kinases and provide a theoretical basis for interpreting calcium signal amplitude and frequency in plant cells.

Constitutive overexpression of the Arabidopsis AHL15 gene delays leaf senescence, while loss‑of‑function accelerates it, and dexamethasone‑induced nuclear localization of AHL15‑GR confers a stay‑green phenotype during dark‑triggered senescence. AHL15 directly represses the senescence master regulator ORESARA1 and multiple CYTOKININ OXIDASE genes, reducing cytokinin breakdown and thereby postponing senescence. These combined transcriptional effects explain the strong stay‑green phenotype of AHL15‑overexpressing plants.

The authors compiled and standardized published data on Rubisco dark inhibition for 157 flowering plant species, categorizing them into four inhibition levels and analyzing phylogenetic trends. Their meta‑analysis reveals a complex, uneven distribution of inhibition across taxa, suggesting underlying chloroplast microenvironment drivers and providing a new resource for future photosynthesis improvement efforts.

Integrating physiological, transcriptomic, and cellular analyses, the study shows that olive fruit abscission zones undergo lignification, alkalization, and extensive cell‑wall remodeling during natural maturation and after ethephon treatment. A set of 733 FAZ‑specific genes, including β‑1,3‑glucanases, pectate lyases, and pH‑regulating transporters, were identified, and increased glucanase activity together with reduced plasmodesmata callose suggest enhanced intercellular communication facilitates organ detachment in this non‑climacteric fruit.

The study demonstrates that limonene, a natural essential‑oil component, strongly inhibits Fusarium oxysporum, the causal agent of potato dry rot, by impairing colony growth, hyphal morphology, spore viability, membrane integrity, and transcription/translation processes, as well as disrupting ion homeostasis. Combined treatments reveal additive effects with mancozeb and synergistic effects with hymexazol, highlighting limonene's potential as an eco‑friendly bio‑fungicide for potato disease management.

The study optimized three wheat transformation methods—immature embryo, callus, and in planta injection—by systematically adjusting Agrobacterium strain, bacterial density, acetosyringone concentration, and incubation conditions, achieving transformation efficiencies up to 66.84%. Using these protocols, CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of the negative regulator TaARE1-D produced mutants with increased grain number, spike length, grain size, and a stay‑green phenotype, demonstrating the platform’s potential to accelerate yield and stress‑tolerance improvements in wheat.

The study presents a high-quality genome assembly for the nickel hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens and uses it as a reference for comparative transcriptomic analyses across different N. caerulescens accessions and the non‑accumulating relative Microthlaspi perfoliatum. It identifies a limited set of metal transporters (NcHMA3, NcHMA4, NcIREG2, and NcIRT1) whose elevated expression correlates with hyperaccumulation, and demonstrates that frameshift mutations in NcIRT1 can abolish the trait, indicating an ancient, transporter‑driven origin of nickel hyperaccumulation.

The study introduced a novel method to quantify abscission zone competency (AZC) and examined physiological traits across four temperate tree species with differing leaf habits. Results revealed divergent timing between chlorophyll loss, photosynthetic decline, and AZC development, highlighting that senescence and abscission are separate, variably timed processes among deciduous, brevi‑deciduous, and marcescent trees.