The study investigates the subfunctionalization of duplicated GIGANTEA paralogs in Petunia x hybrida, focusing on PhGI2's role in floral transition. While RNAi silencing of PhGI2 caused mixed vegetative and reproductive phenotypes, CRISPR/Cas9-generated loss‑of‑function alleles showed that PhGI2 specifically promotes flowering without affecting vegetative growth or scent. The findings reveal that PhGI2 is essential for maintaining circadian gene expression dynamics and regulating flowering time, separating vegetative growth from reproductive timing.

The study investigates the gene regulatory network (GRN) controlling flowering time in the allotetraploid crop Brassica napus by comparing its transcriptome to that of Arabidopsis thaliana. While most orthologous gene pairs show conserved expression dynamics, several flowering‑time genes display regulatory divergence, especially under cold conditions, indicating subfunctionalisation among paralogues. Despite these differences, the overall GRN topology remains similar to Arabidopsis, likely due to retention of multiple paralogues.

The study demonstrates that in Arabidopsis, the receptor-like kinase CRK2 phosphorylates and retains QSK1 at the plasma membrane under normal conditions, preventing excess callose deposition at plasmodesmata. Osmotic stress leads to dephosphorylation of QSK1, allowing its relocalization to plasmodesmata where it promotes stress‑induced callose accumulation, while CRK2 later moves to plasmodesmata to negatively regulate this deposition, revealing a dynamic gating mechanism.

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 reveals that Arabidopsis CRK2 phosphorylates the callose synthases CALS1 and CALS3, influencing callose deposition at plasmodesmata and thereby affecting phloem loading and source‑to‑sink transport. Loss of CRK2 leads to starch accumulation in older leaves, a phenotype rescued by introducing functional CALS1 or CALS3 alleles, indicating that CRK2, CALS1, and CALS3 jointly regulate growth and development through control of intercellular transport.

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 investigates the roles of the receptor-like kinase CRK2 and the RNA-binding protein GRP7 in regulating gibberellin signaling and floral transition in Arabidopsis, using phenotypic analyses of single and double mutants. Exogenous gibberellic acid treatments and transcript profiling reveal that CRK2 and GRP7 jointly modulate GA-responsive pathways, highlighting a novel regulatory layer involving membrane kinases and RNA-binding proteins.

The study created transgenic Arabidopsis lines enabling inducible plasmodesmal closure via an overactive CALLOSE SYNTHASE3 allele (icals3m) and the C‑terminal domain of PDLP1, independent of pathogen signals. Induced closure triggered stress‑responsive gene expression, elevated salicylic acid levels, and enhanced resistance to Pseudomonas syringae, while also causing starch accumulation, reduced growth, and increased susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea, indicating that plasmodesmal closure itself can activate immune signaling.

The study investigated chloroplast retrograde signals that regulate plasmodesmata-mediated intercellular trafficking, identifying heme from the tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathway as a key modulator. Using Arabidopsis thaliana mutants and Nicotiana benthamiana gene silencing, the authors pinpointed heme‑responsive genes that likely alter plasmodesmata function, linking chloroplast signaling to coordinated plant development and resource allocation.

The authors demonstrate that the WAVE/SCAR complex component BRK1 localizes to plasmodesmata and primary pit fields in Arabidopsis, using a BRK1‑YFP reporter line. BRK1 enrichment coincides with regions of reduced propidium iodide staining and colocalizes with aniline blue‑stained callose, suggesting that ARP2/3‑dependent actin branching contributes to plasmodesmata permeability regulation alongside formin‑mediated linear actin.