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 evaluated a transgenic soybean line (VPZ-34A) expressing Arabidopsis VDE, PsbS, and ZEP for combined improvements in light‑use efficiency and carbon assimilation under ambient and elevated CO2 in a FACE experiment. While VPZ‑34A showed enhanced maximum quantum efficiency of PSII under fluctuating light, it did not increase carbon assimilation efficiency or yield, and transcriptome analysis revealed limited gene expression changes. The results suggest that VPZ‑mediated photosynthetic gains are insufficient to boost productivity under elevated CO2.

The study used Arabidopsis thaliana autoimmune (DANGEROUS MIX) mutants to dissect the growth–defence trade‑off, identifying two core transcriptomic modules that capture growth and defence programs. Genetic removal of the three ADR1 helper NLRs reversed module expression and preferentially restored growth‑related receptor‑like kinase genes, while chromatin accessibility changes were larger at growth loci, indicating that ADR1‑mediated immune signaling actively suppresses growth genes.