Genetius

The study applies convolutional neural networks to super‑resolution images of modern and fossil grass pollen, enabling quantification of taxonomic diversity and C3/C4 physiological ratios in ancient grassland assemblages. Using semi‑supervised training and gradient‑boosted classifiers, the authors reconstruct past grass diversity and C4 decline in a 25,000‑year lake‑sediment record, linking these changes to climate and fire dynamics.

The study shows that invasion of the host root xylem by the parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum induces a phosphate‑starvation response in Arabidopsis thaliana, leading to systemic suppression of immunity. Consequently, infested plants become more susceptible to secondary microbial infections, highlighting the importance of multitrophic interactions in crop resilience.

The study introduces PAiD, an AI-designed, plant-optimized genome‑editing platform derived from OpenCRISPR-1, capable of NHEJ‑mediated indel formation, adenine and cytosine base editing, and prime editing. PAiD demonstrates robust, SpCas9‑comparable efficiency across multiple plant loci, showcasing the translational promise of AI‑engineered nucleases for plant genetics.

The study shows that wheat seminal roots and rice crown roots actively maintain gravitropic setpoint angles (GSAs) by returning to their original growth angles after displacement, and exhibit antigravitropic offsets under clinorotation. Exogenous auxin steepens rooting in both species, indicating conserved hormonal regulation, while lateral root GSA responses differ between wheat and rice. These results reveal gravity‑dependent and auxin‑mediated mechanisms governing root angle in monocot cereals.

The authors produced the first tissue‑specific full‑length transcriptome atlas of Panax vietnamensis var. fuscidiscus by integrating PacBio SMRT and Illumina RNA‑Seq, revealing 281,468 non‑redundant transcripts, including 8,089 novel genes. They identified 21 candidate genes and extensive alternative splicing events linked to triterpenoid saponin pathways, highlighting post‑transcriptional regulation of ocotillol‑type ginsenoside biosynthesis.

The authors present a hexagonal T‑FACE warming system that meets UK/EU health‑safety standards and uses real‑time temperature‑responsive control to maintain a set temperature difference between heated and ambient plots. Field tests on a winter wheat crop demonstrated that the system reliably altered phenology and morphology (heading date, plant height, spike length, spikelet number), highlighting its utility for climate‑change research under realistic conditions.

The study reports fully-phased, chromosome-scale genome assemblies for four Cannabis sativa genotypes using Oxford Nanopore long reads combined with Hi-C data and novel assembly tools (PECAT and YaHS). Despite lower QV, the assemblies match HiFi references in contiguity and gene content, and enable phylogenetic comparison with 77 other haplotypes and the first draft of a Cannabis pan‑NLRome.

The study discovered that the volume composition ratio (VCR) of upper to lower rice internodes strongly predicts culm non‑structural carbohydrate (NSC) accumulation and is highly reproducible across years, surpassing simpler morphological traits. Experimental manipulation of internode development showed that altering VCR directly modifies NSC levels, establishing VCR as a reliable morphological indicator for enhancing yield stability in rice.

Live-cell imaging of Arabidopsis thaliana pollen tubes co-expressing fluorescent tubulin and actin markers revealed partial co‑localization of the two cytoskeletal systems and demonstrated that microtubule organization depends on actin in a spatially specific manner. Disruption of actin, but not microtubules, perturbs medial microtubules, while EB1b tracking shows a largely parallel microtubule array with plus ends oriented away from the tube apex.

The study presents the first haplotype‑resolved, chromosome‑scale genome assembly of Opisthopappus longilobus and population resequencing of 115 individuals, revealing deep genetic divergence between O. longilobus and O. taihangensis and limited gene flow. Integrating genomics with environmental data identified thousands of adaptive genes linked to water stress and predicts heightened maladaptation under future climate change, while promoter differences in O‑methyltransferase genes may explain distinct flavonoid profiles.