Special issue on methods to assess crop stress resilience Our food crops are threatened by ever-increasing environmental challenges as a consequence of climate change. It’s critical that we develop strategies to monitor and mitigate these stresses, but it’s also a huge undertaking. A new focus…

Review: Revisiting endophyte-mediated plant protection across diverse host systems Endophytic bacteria and fungi, the invisible allies within plant tissues, are emerging as powerful contributors to sustainable agriculture. They can enhance plant defense through multiple mechanisms, including antibiosis,…

Review. Beyond elite crops: Designing resilient agriculture from wild plant diversity When looking at the foods that fill our supermarkets, it can be hard to imagine we are relying on just a handful of domesticated plant species. Thousands of wild plants, each with its own unique strengths, remain…

Review: Plants calcium signaling is both conserved and plant-specific Although calcium ions are universal second messengers, plants employ both conserved and unique strategies to decode Ca²⁺ signals. In a new review in Cell, Sheng Luan reviews the molecular tools used to study calcium signaling…

Review: Rare variants in crops genomes and how to spot them Despite the usefulness of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for linking DNA variation to agronomic traits, GWAS are focused on detecting common alleles and often fail to detect less-common, rare variants. Rare variants may account for…

Review: What happens when it gets too hot - the vulnerability of plant reproduction in a warming world Climate change brings about higher temperatures, threatening plant populations worldwide. Higher temperatures interfere with reproductive processes such as pollen production or fertilization, even…

Review: More is better, the importance of plasmodesmata in C4 photosynthesis Plant (and many algal) cells facilitate cell-to-cell movement through specialized regulated pores called plasmodesmata that connect neighboring cells, and there is a rich literature in how plasmodesmata regulate intercellular…

Review: Epidermis-derived secretory structures I’d never thought about the fact that there are two distinct types of epidermal-derived secretory structures, both mainly involved in stress responses and defense. Glandular trichomes (GTs) are well known structures that protrude outwards, but they…