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.

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.

Foliar application of Trichoderma harzianum cell‑free culture filtrates (CF) increased fruit yield, root growth, and photosynthesis in a commercial tomato cultivar under prolonged water deficit in a Mediterranean greenhouse. Integrated physiological, metabolite, and transcriptomic analyses revealed that CF mitigated drought‑induced changes, suppressing about half of water‑stress responsive genes, thereby reducing the plant’s transcriptional sensitivity to water scarcity.

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.

The study models maize flowering time plasticity using a physiological reaction norm derived from multi-environment trial data, revealing genotype-specific differences in temperature-driven development and photoperiod perception. It introduces an envirotyping metric that shows genotypes can experience markedly different photoperiods even within the same environment, and demonstrates distinct adaptive strategies between tropical and temperate germplasm.

The study generated a temporal physiological and metabolomic map of leaf senescence in diverse maize inbred lines differing in stay‑green phenotype, identifying 84 metabolites associated with senescence and distinct metabolic signatures between stay‑green and non‑stay‑green lines. Integration of metabolite data with genomic information uncovered 56 candidate genes, and reverse‑genetic validation in maize and Arabidopsis demonstrated conserved roles for phenylpropanoids such as naringenin chalcone and eriodictyol in regulating senescence.

The study examined transcriptomic responses of the tropical seagrass Halophila stipulacea from a pristine and an impacted site under single and combined thermal and excess nutrient stress in mesocosms. Combined stress caused greater gene reprogramming than individual stresses, with thermal effects dominating and the impacted population showing reduced plasticity but higher resilience. Core stress‑response genes were identified as potential early field indicators of environmental stress.