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 study examined how elevated atmospheric CO₂ (550 ppm) affects immunity in the C₄ cereal maize (Zea mays L.) by exposing plants grown under ambient and elevated CO₂ to a range of pathogens. Elevated CO₂ increased susceptibility to sugarcane mosaic virus, decreased susceptibility to several bacterial and fungal pathogens, and left susceptibility to others unchanged, with reduced bacterial disease linked to heightened basal immune responses. These findings provide a baseline for future investigations into CO₂‑responsive defense mechanisms in C₄ crops.

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.

The study provides a comprehensive genome-wide catalog and single‑cell expression atlas of the carbonic anhydrase (CA) gene family in maize, identifying 18 CA genes across α, β, and γ subfamilies and detailing their structural and regulatory features. Phylogenetic, synteny, promoter motif, bulk tissue RNA‑seq, and single‑cell RNA‑seq analyses reveal distinct tissue and cell‑type specific expression patterns, highlighting β‑CAs as key players in C4 photosynthesis and γ‑CAs in ion/pH buffering, and propose cell‑type‑specific CA genes as targets for improving stress resilience.

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.

The study integrated genetic architecture derived from maize GWAS into phenotypic simulations of hybrid populations, using ≥200 top GWAS hits and adjusting marker effect sizes, which increased the correlation between simulated and empirical trait data across environments (r = 0.397–0.915). These informed simulations produced realistic trait distributions and genomic prediction results that closely matched empirical observations, demonstrating improved utility for digital breeding programs.

The study compared physiological, ion‑balance, and metabolic responses of two maize inbred lines—salt‑sensitive C68 and salt‑tolerant NC326—under salinity stress. Untargeted metabolomics identified 56 metabolites and, together with genetic analysis, linked 10 candidate genes to key protective metabolites, revealing constitutive and inducible mechanisms of salt tolerance.