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 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.
Whole genome sequencing-based multi-locus association mapping for kernel iron, zinc and protein content in groundnut
Authors: Sagar, U. N., Parmar, S., Gangurde, S. S., Sharma, V., Pandey, A. K., Mohinuddin, D. K., Dube, N., Bhat, R. S., John, K., Sreevalli, M. D., Rani, P. S., Singh, K., Varshney, R. K., Pandey, M. K.
The study used multi‑season phenotyping for iron, zinc, and protein content together with whole‑genome re‑sequencing of a groundnut mini‑core collection to conduct a genome‑wide association study, identifying numerous marker‑trait associations and candidate genes linked to nutrient homeostasis. SNP‑based KASP markers were designed for nine loci, of which three showed polymorphism and are ready for deployment in genomics‑assisted breeding for nutrient‑rich groundnut varieties.