The study introduced charge-altering mutations into the N‑terminal region of Lhcb2 in Arabidopsis thaliana lacking native Lhcb2 to assess how intrinsic charge affects LHCII phosphorylation, state‑transition efficiency, and PSI‑LHCII complex formation. The R2E mutation drastically reduced Lhcb1/2 phosphorylation, impaired state transitions, and prevented PSI‑LHCII assembly, whereas the Q9E mutation had no measurable impact, and neither mutation altered thylakoid ultrastructure. Residual state transitions in the R2E line suggest that other Stn7 substrates can partially compensate for the loss of Lhcb2 phosphorylation.

The study examined how DNA methylation influences cold stress priming in Arabidopsis thaliana, revealing that primed plants exhibit distinct gene expression and methylation patterns compared to non-primed plants. DNA methylation mutants, especially met1 lacking CG methylation, showed altered cold memory and misregulation of the CBF gene cluster, indicating that methylation ensures transcriptional precision during stress recall.

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 brassinosteroids activate phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK) by promoting dephosphorylation of conserved Ser-62 and Thr-66 residues, a process antagonized by the GSK3-like kinase BIN2. BR‑deficient Arabidopsis mutants exhibit reduced PCK activity, while phospho‑blocking mutations confer BR‑independent activation and enhanced seedling growth, and similar regulatory mechanisms are observed in maize and sorghum leaves.

The study generated deep proteome and phosphoproteome datasets from guard cell‑enriched tissue to examine how phosphorylation regulates stomatal movements. Comparative analysis revealed increased phosphorylation of endomembrane trafficking and vacuolar proteins in closed stomata, supporting a role for phospho‑regulated trafficking in stomatal dynamics.

The study examined short‑term and transannual drought memory in cambium tissues of two Populus genotypes and four epitypes with modified DNA‑methylation machinery, revealing persistent hormone, transcript, and methylation changes one week after stress relief. Trees previously stressed in Year 1 displayed distinct physiological and molecular responses to a second drought in Year 2, indicating long‑term memory linked to stable CG‑context DNA methylation, with genotype‑dependent differences in plasticity and stability. These findings position the cambium as a reservoir for epigenetic stress memory and suggest exploitable epigenetic variation for tree breeding under drought.

The study identifies and functionally characterizes an acetyl‑CoA:monolignol transferase gene in Populus, showing that its overexpression elevates acetate incorporation into lignin without harming plant growth. Elevated lignin acetylation correlates with gene expression levels and markedly improves biomass pretreatability for biofuel production.

The study compared physiological and transcriptomic responses of poplar trees colonized by the ectomycorrhizal fungi Paxillus involutus or Cenococcum geophilum under normal, drought, and recovery conditions. Cenococcum-colonized plants showed constitutive up‑regulation of heat‑shock proteins, galactinol synthase, and aquaporins and maintained water status and photosynthesis during severe drought, whereas Paxillus colonization promoted growth and nitrogen‑use efficiency and enabled rapid recovery through drought‑induced leaf shedding. These contrasting strategies illustrate species‑specific positions on the growth‑defense trade‑off in ectomycorrhizal symbiosis.

The study identifies EPP1 as a fourth, conserved component of the ancestral common symbiosis pathway required for intracellular plant–microbe interactions, showing that its loss impairs arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization across diverse plant clades. EPP1 is phosphorylated by the plasma‑membrane receptor SYRMK, and this modification is essential for downstream activation of the nuclear kinase CCaMK, positioning EPP1 upstream in the signaling cascade.

The study examined electrophysiological responses of young poplar trees to controlled stem bending and root pressurization, identifying a distinct gradual potential (GP) whose amplitude and propagation are modulated by stimulus speed and intensity. Results indicate that mechanical stress generates a transient hydraulic pressure wave that triggers the GP, suggesting a hydraulic‑electrical coupling mechanism that encodes detailed mechanical information for adaptive responses to wind.