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 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 examined how soil phosphorus and nitrogen availability influence wheat root-associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities and the expression of mycorrhizal nutrient transporters. Field sampling across two years combined with controlled pot experiments showed that P and N jointly affect AMF colonisation, community composition (with Funneliformis dominance under high P), and regulation of phosphate, ammonium, and nitrate transporters. Integrating metabarcoding and RT‑qPCR provides a framework to assess AMF contributions to crop nutrition.

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 investigated unexpected leaf spot symptoms in Psa3‑resistant kiwifruit (Actinidia) germplasm, finding that Psa3 was detectable by qPCR and metabarcoding despite poor culturing. Metabarcoding revealed distinct bacterial community shifts in lesions versus healthy tissue, and whole‑genome sequencing identified diverse Pseudomonas spp. that, while not individually more pathogenic, could enhance Psa3 growth, suggesting pathogenic consortia on resistant hosts.