The study introduces a hybrid modeling framework that integrates a logistic ordinary differential equation with a Long Short-Term Memory neural network to form a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) for predicting wheat plant height. Using only time and temperature as inputs, the PINN outperformed other longitudinal growth models, achieving the lowest average RMSE and reduced variability across multiple random initializations. The results suggest that embedding biological growth constraints within data‑driven models can substantially improve prediction accuracy for plant traits.

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.

The study identified a major QTL on chromosome 6A that accounts for 40% of variation in medium-chain ester (MCE) levels in strawberry fruit, pinpointing FaCCR1 and FaOCT4 as the causal genes. Functional validation through subcellular localization, transient overexpression, enzymatic assays, and molecular docking demonstrated that FaCCR1 also catalyzes MCE precursor reactions, and a KASP marker in FaOCT4 was developed for breeding fragrant cultivars.

The study genotyped 1,013 hard red spring wheat lines using SNP arrays and targeted KASP markers to track changes in genetic diversity and the distribution of dwarfing Rht alleles over a century of North American breeding. It found shifts from Rht‑D1b to Rht‑B1b dominance, identified low‑frequency dwarf alleles at Rht24 and Rht25 that have increased recently, and revealed gene interactions that can fine‑tune plant height, along with evidence of recent selection for photoperiod sensitivity.

A biparental Vicia faba mapping population was screened under glasshouse conditions for resistance to a mixture of Fusarium avenaceum and Fusarium oxysporum, revealing several families with moderate to high resistance. Using the Vfaba_v2 Axiom SNP array, a high-density linkage map of 6,755 SNPs was constructed, enabling the identification of a major QTL on linkage group 4 associated with partial resistance to foot and root rot.