The study demonstrates that short‑term low phosphate treatment delays leaf senescence in rice by increasing photosynthetic pigments, enhancing antioxidant enzyme activities, and reducing oxidative damage, whereas high phosphate accelerates senescence. CRISPR/Cas9 editing of MIR827 to lower Pi levels also postpones senescence, while overexpression of MIR827 or MIR399, which raises Pi, speeds it up. Transcriptomic profiling reveals coordinated changes in senescence‑associated and metabolic pathways underlying the low‑phosphate response.

The study identifies the AP2/ERF transcription factor GEMMIFER (MpGMFR) as essential for asexual reproduction in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, showing that loss of MpGMFR via genome editing or amiRNA abolishes gemma and gemma cup formation, while dexamethasone‑induced activation triggers their development. Transient strong activation of MpGMFR initiates gemma initial cells at the meristem, which mature into functional gemmae, indicating MpGMFR is both necessary and sufficient for meristem‑derived asexual propagule formation.

The study examined leaf pavement cell shape complexity across a natural European aspen (Populus tremula) population, using GWAS to pinpoint the transcription factor MYB305a as a regulator of cell geometry. Functional validation showed that MYB305a expression is induced by drought and contributes to shape simplification, with cell complexity negatively correlated with water-use efficiency and climatic variables of the genotypes' origin.

A genome‑wide association study of 187 bread wheat genotypes identified 812 significant loci linked to 25 spectral vegetation indices under rainfed drought conditions, revealing a major QTL hotspot on chromosome 2A that accounts for up to 20% of variance in greenness and pigment traits. Candidate gene analysis at this hotspot uncovered stress‑responsive genes, demonstrating that vegetation indices are heritable digital phenotypes useful for selection and genetic analysis of drought resilience.

The study identified the poplar homolog of Arabidopsis HDG11 and generated transgenic poplar hybrids overexpressing PtaHDG11. Constitutive expression conferred markedly improved drought tolerance, as evidenced by higher leaf water content, reduced oxidative damage, up‑regulation of antioxidant genes, and greater post‑stress biomass, while also causing a glabrous phenotype. These results highlight PtaHDG11 as a promising target for breeding drought‑resilient trees.

The study generated a dataset of 420 sgRNAs targeting promoters, exons, and introns of 137 tomato genes in protoplasts, linking editing efficiency to chromatin accessibility, genomic context, and sequence features. Open chromatin sites showed higher editing rates, while transcriptional activity had little effect, and a subset of guides produced near‑complete editing with microhomology‑mediated deletions. Human‑trained prediction models performed poorly, highlighting the need for plant‑specific guide design tools.

The study identifies the extended NT‑C2 domain of Plastid Movement Impaired 1 (PMI1) as the main membrane‑binding module that interacts with PI4P and PI(4,5)P2, requiring basic residues for plasma‑membrane association. Calcium binding by the NT‑C2 domain modulates its phosphoinositide preference, and cytosolic Ca2+ depletion blocks blue‑light‑induced PMI1 redistribution, indicating that both the NT‑C2 domain and adjacent intrinsically disordered regions are essential for PMI1’s role in chloroplast movement.

The authors performed a genome-wide analysis of 53 CCCH zinc‑finger genes in pearl millet, identified seven stress‑responsive members and demonstrated that overexpressing PgC3H50 in Arabidopsis enhances drought and salt tolerance. They showed that the ABA‑responsive transcription factor PgAREB1 directly binds the PgC3H50 promoter, activating its expression, as confirmed by yeast one‑hybrid, dual‑luciferase and EMSA assays, defining a new PgAREB1‑PgC3H50 regulatory module.

The study identifies MtFTb1 and MtFTb2 as essential, redundant regulators of long‑day flowering in the legume Medicago truncatula, demonstrating that they are required for up‑regulating MtFTa1 under vernalised long‑day conditions. Using CRISPR/Cas9‑generated single and double mutants, the authors show that double mutants are specifically delayed in flowering under long days while retaining vernalization responsiveness, and transcriptomic analyses reveal that MtFTb1/2 activate MADS‑box genes and other flowering regulators.

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.