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 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 comparative physiological study of persimmon cultivars with flat (Hiratanenashi) and round (Koushimaru) fruit shapes revealed that differences in cell proliferation, cell shape, and size contribute to shape variation. Principal component analysis of elliptic Fourier descriptors tracked shape changes, while histology and transcriptome profiling identified candidate genes, including a WOX13 homeobox gene, potentially governing fruit shape development.

The study used Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with low (vtc2, vtc4) and high (vtc2/OE-VTC2) ascorbate levels to examine how ascorbate concentration affects gene expression and cellular homeostasis. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that altered ascorbate levels modulate defense and stress pathways, and that TAA1/TAR2‑mediated auxin biosynthesis is required for coping with elevated ascorbate in a light‑dependent manner.

The study investigates how fruit shape and pericarp permeability drive the water content trajectories that determine whether fruits become fleshy or dry at maturity, using a large-scale survey of 29,760 species and targeted water‑content measurements. It finds that fleshy fruits retain water longer due to globular shapes and waxy pericarps, while dry fruits lose water rapidly as lignification and increased permeability accompany elongated shapes, especially under open‑habitat conditions.

An EMS-induced round fruit (rf) mutant in woodland strawberry was found to carry a premature stop codon in the TRM5 homolog (FveTRM5), linking this gene to fruit shape regulation. Transgenic complementation restored the round phenotype, while overexpression in both strawberry and Arabidopsis caused organ elongation, indicating FveTRM5 promotes cell elongation and restricts medial‑lateral cell division via microtubule association. The study highlights FveTRM5 as a valuable target for breeding strawberry varieties with desired fruit shapes.

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.