The Arabidopsis thaliana Columbia-0 (Col-0) accession is often treated as a standard reference genotype shared by plant researchers worldwide. However, a new study by Tadros et al. shows that decades of independent propagation in different laboratories have left distinct genetic and epigenetic signatures…

Green leaves are essential for photosynthesis and crop productivity, but the genes that maintain normal leaf development can also influence other aspects of plant growth. In this study, Wang et al. investigated a rice mutant called yellow-green leaf and reduced tillering (ygrt), which develops yellow-green…

For successful fertilization, sperm must reach the egg. Most land plants deliver non-motile sperm through a pollen tube. However, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha retains the ancestral form of fertilization, sperm that are motile and use flagella to swim towards the egg. This process offers a unique…

Root nodules are specialized organs that house nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria. Previously, bulk tissue transcriptomics suggested that root nodules and lateral roots share most transcriptional programs and therefore may share overlapping developmental trajectory. Contrary to this model, recent work…

The interactions between different types of plants, pests, and the predators that hunt them shape the health of entire landscapes, but it has been hard to predict what happens when you mix more plant species into different environments. Here, Wan et al. analyzed massive amounts of data from field studies…

A lichen is a unique composite organism formed through close interactions between a filamentous fungus (mycobiont) and its photosynthetic partners [algae and/ or cyanobacteria, referred together as photobiont(s)]. In an effort to better understand these mutualistic interactions, Joisten-Rosenthal et…

Plant breeders have long relied on genetic markers to predict how crops will perform, but many important traits such as yield, flowering time, and stress responses are shaped by complex interactions between genes and the environment. In this study, Creach et al. investigated whether combining multiple…

How do plants decide where to invest their resources when nutrients and energy are limited? A new study highlights trehalose-6-phosphate (Tre6P), a key sugar-status signal, as a critical coordinator. Previous work demonstrated that transgenic plants expressing modified versions of TPS1, the enzyme responsible…