Rosepiah Munene, Osman Mustafa, Sara Loftus, Vincent O Suba, Nipuna Withanage, Niklas Schmücker, Peter Bulli, Reimund P Rötter, Dennis O Otieno, Mutez A Ahmed, Michaela A Dippold
{"title":"Beneath the Drought: Rhizosphere Processes Shape Genotype-Specific Sorghum Responses to Drought-Induced N Limitation.","authors":"Rosepiah Munene, Osman Mustafa, Sara Loftus, Vincent O Suba, Nipuna Withanage, Niklas Schmücker, Peter Bulli, Reimund P Rötter, Dennis O Otieno, Mutez A Ahmed, Michaela A Dippold","doi":"10.1111/pce.70845","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70845","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Droughts increasingly threaten crop productivity in nutrient-depleted tropical soils. We investigated how water limitation influences rhizomicrobial traits (microbial biomass and functional community composition, enzyme activities) and nitrogen (N) uptake in three sorghum genotypes Makueni local (Mkl), Gadam (Gd), and IESH 22012 (IESH) under well-watered and drought conditions. Depth-specific (0-30 and 30-60 cm) <sup>15</sup>N labelling traced N uptake at flowering and grain-filling. Drought reduced grain N content across all genotypes but shoot N only in IESH. Gd enhanced <sup>15</sup>N recovery in grains via post-anthesis uptake from both depths under drought, whereas Mkl and IESH rather reallocated N within the plants towards the grain. Compared to well-watered conditions, rhizosphere chitinase activity declined in Mkl under drought, while leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) activity remained unchanged. Under drought, microbial biomass decreased at flowering but recovered at grain-filling, coinciding with enhanced arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) colonisation. At grain-filling, AMF associations with specific bacterial taxa aligned with grain N recovery, N-utilisation efficiency, and LAP activity, displaying complementary roles within the plant-AMF-bacterial functional consortia in sustaining N acquisition. Overall, N acquisition in sorghum shifted in a genotype-specific manner from reliance on microbial activity under well-watered conditions to selective AMF-bacterial partnership at grain-filling under drought. These responses highlight the significant role of rhizosphere functional dynamics in sorghum N nutrition during reproductive stages under concomitant drought and nutrient limitation.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"9752-9769"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13725246/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148862821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Duncan D Smith, Thomas J Givnish, Mark A Adams, Katherine A McCulloh
{"title":"Diversity and Plasticity of Hydraulic Traits Across a Relative Moisture Supply Gradient: Results From Multiple Common Gardens.","authors":"Duncan D Smith, Thomas J Givnish, Mark A Adams, Katherine A McCulloh","doi":"10.1111/pce.70890","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70890","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maintaining cellular hydration is essential for plant metabolic activity and carbon gain. Plants typically maintain hydration through efficiency of water transport networks, the ability to avoid network disruption, and retention of water via accumulation of osmotica. Given their global domain and their enduring presence across geological eras, plants have evolved with large variations in moisture supply across geographic and temporal space, notably via trait adaptation and plasticity. We quantified plastic and genetically fixed variation in 6 key hydraulic traits across 10 Eucalyptus species in 4 common gardens spanning a climatic relative-moisture gradient in Victoria, Australia. These traits generally shift plastically within species across gardens while maintaining interspecific trends across species within gardens. Species grown at or originating from drier sites tend to have lower hydraulic conductivity, narrower xylem conduits, greater conduit density, greater bulk xylem density, greater fibre wall fraction, and more negative turgor loss point, consistent with expectations based on maximizing whole-plant growth. Genetically fixed variation was usually greater than plastic variation, but some traits were more plastic in species native to moister areas. Variation in xylem anatomy largely explained variation in hydraulic conductivity and xylem density, notwithstanding idiosyncratic site and species effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"10207-10224"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13725259/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148975222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xin Wang, Linfeng Feng, Jiaya Cong, Anni Luo, Shiyou Lü, Feng Yu, Pingfang Yang
{"title":"Identification of OsCsLF6 Gene Responsible for Rice Seed Submergence Germination Through Genome-Wide Association Analysis.","authors":"Xin Wang, Linfeng Feng, Jiaya Cong, Anni Luo, Shiyou Lü, Feng Yu, Pingfang Yang","doi":"10.1111/pce.70853","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70853","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Flooding stress is a primary environmental barrier that severely limits the widespread adoption of direct-seeded rice systems. Under submerged conditions, rapid coleoptile elongation serves as a vital morphological strategy that facilitates anaerobic germination and successful seedling establishment, yet its underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Through a genome-wide association study, we identified a critical locus governing anaerobic coleoptile elongation, in which OsCsLF6, encoding a mixed-linkage glucan (MLG) synthase, was characterized as the causal gene. Genetic and biochemical analyses demonstrated that OsCsLF6 positively regulated coleoptile elongation by directly mediating MLG deposition into the primary cell wall. Mechanistically, we identified OsERF74, an AP2/ERF transcription factor, as an upstream master repressor that directly binds to a conserved core cis-element within the OsCsLF6 promoter. Under submergence, OsERF74 deficiency (oserf74 mutants) completely releases this transcriptional suppression, triggering a substantial upregulation of OsCsLF6 expression and subsequent hyper-accumulation of cell wall MLG. In contrast, constitutive overexpression of OsERF74 persistently blocks MLG biosynthesis. Crucially, a natural single-nucleotide polymorphism located within the OsERF74 binding element in the promoter defines two distinct haplotypes. The elite haplotype (Hap1) effectively disrupts OsERF74 binding affinity, which in turn attenuates transcriptional repression and sustains high OsCsLF6 expression, ultimately driving accelerated MLG synthesis and coleoptile elongation. Our findings establish a condition-specific OsERF74-OsCsLF6 regulatory module that serves as a central biochemical hub orchestrating cell wall remodelling during anaerobic germination. This module thus represents a promising molecular target and elite genetic resource for molecular breeding of flood-tolerant and direct-seeded rice varieties.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"9841-9854"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148872339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yong-Jun He, Jin-di Wang, Meng-Yao Duan, Long-Qi Dong, Chen Liu
{"title":"Functional Conservation of BIC-UVR8-Mediated Suppression of UV-B Responses in Arabidopsis and Eggplant.","authors":"Yong-Jun He, Jin-di Wang, Meng-Yao Duan, Long-Qi Dong, Chen Liu","doi":"10.1111/pce.70855","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70855","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maintaining cellular photosensitivity while preventing damage from excessive light energy is a crucial challenge for plants, and negative feedback inhibition of photoreceptors plays a vital role in achieving this balance. Here, we uncover a regulatory mechanism involved in the UVR8-mediated UV-B signalling pathway. Through a combination of genetic, biochemical and cross-species analyses, we identified Arabidopsis BIC1 and BIC2, along with their orthologs in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), as functionally conserved negative regulators in UV-B signalling. Through physical association with UVR8, BIC proteins likely stabilise its inactive dimeric state, which in turn attenuates UV‑B‑triggered monomerization and downstream transcriptional activation of the photoreceptor. Overexpression of BIC proteins in both eggplant and Arabidopsis promote hypocotyl elongation under UV-B, while the bic1bic2 double mutant exhibits enhanced photomorphogenesis. Notably, the uvr8-6bic1bic2 triple mutant displays an intermediate phenotype between the uvr8-6 and bic1bic2 parents, revealing a mutual regulatory relationship: BIC proteins inhibit UVR8 activity at the protein level, while UVR8 promotes BIC transcription via HY5. Heterologous overexpression of eggplant SmBIC proteins in Arabidopsis phenocopies the elongated hypocotyl phenotype of Arabidopsis BIC-overexpressors, further supporting functional conservation. Mechanistically, BICs attenuate UVR8-dependent transcriptional activation of HY5 without directly binding to the HY5 promoter. We establish a self-regulatory negative feedback loop in which HY5 activates BIC expression upon UV-B exposure, and BICs reciprocally suppress UVR8-mediated HY5 transactivation by stabilising the UVR8 dimer. This non-proteolytic regulatory circuit enables precise fine-tuning of photomorphogenic responses to fluctuating UV-B environments. Our study expands the functional repertoire of BIC proteins beyond blue light signalling and defines a conserved mechanism for attenuating UV-B responses essential for environmental adaptation in terrestrial plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"9828-9840"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148872434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaf Hydraulic Conductance Mediates the Effect of Precipitation on Leaf Nutrients in Subtropical Forests.","authors":"Zhimin Li, Zhaofeng Chang, Conghui Guo, Huiying Lin, Rufang Deng, Zhenshuang Li, Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim, Xianzhen Luo, Enqing Hou","doi":"10.1111/pce.70875","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70875","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Precipitation will increase in some regions and decrease in others. These changes can alter plant nutrient status, and consequently, impact the terrestrial carbon cycle. However, the ecological and physiological mechanisms underlying plant nutrient responses to changes in precipitation remain poorly understood. Here, we propose that both soil nutrients and plant hydraulic traits mediate precipitation effects on leaf nutrients. To test this hypothesis, we measured leaf nutrient and hydraulic traits alongside soil properties across 12 Eucalyptus urophylla plantations along a mean annual precipitation gradient (MAP, from 1401 to 1898 mm yr<sup>-1</sup>), with relatively constant mean annual temperature (22.1 ± 0.1°C, mean ± SE) in subtropical China. Leaf nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) ratio increased significantly from 12.5 to 18.5 with increasing MAP. The shift was driven primarily by an elevation in leaf N content (from 1.24 to 2.08 g m<sup>-2</sup>), while leaf P content remained relatively constant (0.10 ± 0.01 g m<sup>-2</sup>). Leaf N and P contents correlated positively with leaf hydraulic conductance (p < 0.05) but not with soil available (or total) N and P contents (p > 0.05) across the MAP gradient. Together, these results suggest that leaf hydraulic conductance, rather than soil nutrients, mediates the response of leaf nutrients to the MAP gradient. A theory-based structural equation modelling analysis further corroborated this hydraulic-mediation pathway. Our findings suggest that high leaf hydraulic conductance under high MAP enhances N and P transport from soil to leaf, especially for N due to its solubility and mobility. These results highlight the need to incorporate nutrient-water interactions into ecosystem models to better predict carbon and nutrient cycles under climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"10163-10178"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148962829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Light Modulates Growth-Resistance-Quality Trade-Offs in Pseudostellaria Heterophylla via a Light-Induced Microbiota-Root-Shoot Axis.","authors":"Yangjun Tan, Xue Jiang, Jiayue Ran, Yanping Gao, Zan Li, Xianyan Xie, Lingling Wang, Yanhong Wang, Xiaohong Ou, Chuanzhi Kang, Lanping Guo, Luqi Huang, Tao Zhou, Qing-Song Yuan","doi":"10.1111/pce.70897","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70897","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plants rely on plant-microbiota interactions to balance growth, defence, and metabolism under stress. Still, the mechanisms governing growth-resistance-quality trade-offs in the shade-tolerant medicinal herb Pseudostellaria heterophylla in understory cultivation systems remain unclear. Here, we integrated phenotypic/photosynthetic/quality assays, rhizosphere microbiome sequencing, leaf transcriptomics, and plant-microbe co-culture experiments to study responses to graded shading. Shading enhanced yield and disease resistance, reshaped the microbiome (enriching beneficial taxa, suppressing pathogenic Alternaria), and induced transcriptional reprogramming-upregulating starch-sucrose/glycerophospholipid metabolism and downregulating flavonoid biosynthesis genes (CHI/CHS) to reduce root-exuded flavonoids that inhibit beneficial bacteria. Functional assays confirmed that these bacteria promote growth and suppress Alternaria-mediated disease under low light. Our findings demonstrate trade-offs in shading coordinates along a bidirectional microbiota-root-shoot axis, establishing a framework for sustainable understory medicinal plant cultivation.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"10401-10420"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149023629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shuaishuai Deng, Jürgen Burkhardt, Ronny Lauerwald, Christophe Flechard, Jürgen Knauer, Carmen Kalalian, Benjamin Dumont, Matthias Mauder, Christian Brümmer, Nicolas Viovy, Benjamin Loubet
{"title":"Hydraulic Activation of Stomata Induced by Hygroscopic Fertilizer Salts Alters Crop Carbon-Water Exchange: Field Evidence From Cereal Crops.","authors":"Shuaishuai Deng, Jürgen Burkhardt, Ronny Lauerwald, Christophe Flechard, Jürgen Knauer, Carmen Kalalian, Benjamin Dumont, Matthias Mauder, Christian Brümmer, Nicolas Viovy, Benjamin Loubet","doi":"10.1111/pce.70870","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70870","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hydraulic activation of stomata (HAS), driven by hygroscopic salt films on leaf surfaces, can create an additional pathway for water loss beyond conventional stomatal vapour diffusion, yet this process remains largely overlooked in studies of plant-atmosphere interactions. We conducted the first field-based assessment of HAS-related responses following foliar interception of hygroscopic urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizer, using eddy covariance (EC) data from five cropland sites (2005-2021). During the 10-day period following UAN application, vegetation conductance (G<sub>veg</sub>) increased significantly across barley, winter wheat and maize, while significant increases in the marginal water cost of carbon gain (λ) and stomatal sensitivity (G<sub>1</sub>) were observed in barley and winter wheat. This pattern could not be attributed to changes in canopy microclimatic conditions or short-term crop growth, and was not observed with alternative liquid mineral fertilizers. Gross primary productivity (GPP) and inferred transpiration (T) also increased following UAN application, with generally greater responses in T than in GPP in most crop-site combinations. The results suggest that UAN-induced HAS alters crop carbon-water exchange at the ecosystem scale. Neglecting HAS in current models may bias predictions of ecosystem water use in fertilized cereals, with broader implications under widespread hygroscopic aerosol deposition.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"10012-10023"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13725244/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148904645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Poonam Kanwar, Britta Möllmann, Stan Altmeisch, Petra Bauer
{"title":"Iron Excess Stress Promotes Adventitious Root Formation at the Root-Hypocotyl Junction in Arabidopsis.","authors":"Poonam Kanwar, Britta Möllmann, Stan Altmeisch, Petra Bauer","doi":"10.1111/pce.70860","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70860","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"10061-10063"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13725250/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Genome-Wide Characterization of SnRK Gene Family in Mangrove Plant Avicennia marina and Function of AmSnRK2.7-AmENO2 Module in Response to Salinity.","authors":"Jinyu Liu, Yu Xiang, Lingyu Song, Jiakun Liu, Jicheng Wang, Jing Li, Mengqi Wu, Ludan Zhang, Shiwei Song, Chaoqun Xu, Qinghua Li, Xiu-Xiu Wang, Mingyue Wei, Xueyi Zhu, Hanchen Tang, Hai-Lei Zheng","doi":"10.1111/pce.70851","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70851","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sucrose non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase (SnRK) is a plant serine/threonine kinase that mediates stress signaling, yet its function in the mangrove Avicennia marina remains unexplored. In this study, we identified 46 SnRK genes in A. marina, classifying them into three subfamilies with high phylogenetic conservation. Family expansion occurred mainly through 20 segmental duplication events under purifying selection (Ka/Ks < 1). Promoter regions were enriched in stress- and hormone-responsive elements, and expression profiling showed distinct tissue-specific and stress-responsive patterns. Our study specifically focused on the functional characterization of AmSnRK2.7. AmSnRK2.7-overexpressed Arabidopsis thaliana increases salt tolerance by altering the expression of ion transport genes and mediating Na<sup>+</sup> efflux from the roots. Further investigation revealed that AmSnRK2.7 interacts with and phosphorylates AmENO2 (enolase, a key enzyme in the glycolysis pathway). Meanwhile, measurements of ATP content in wild type, AmSnRK2.7-overexpressed Arabidopsis lines and the atsnrk2.6 (homologous gene of AmSnRK2.7 in A. thaliana) mutant confirm that the AmSnRK2.7-AmENO2 module can affect the energy-driven Na<sup>+</sup> efflux. Our findings provide key insights into the role of SnRK gene family in mangrove adaptation to saline intertidal habitat, and suggest AmSnRK2.7-AmENO2 module plays a role in salt tolerance.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"9855-9871"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148872418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Min Li, Xiaohui Zhou, Han Yang, Dungang Wang, Na Li, Jipeng Wang, Jingji Li, Huajun Yin
{"title":"Long-Term Warming Suppresses Nitrogen-Fixation Gene Transcription in the Rhizosphere of Invasive Plant Solidago canadensis.","authors":"Min Li, Xiaohui Zhou, Han Yang, Dungang Wang, Na Li, Jipeng Wang, Jingji Li, Huajun Yin","doi":"10.1111/pce.70868","DOIUrl":"10.1111/pce.70868","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate warming can enhance the growth performance of invasive plants, potentially increasing their nitrogen (N) demand. However, whether this additional demand is supported by free-living N fixation remains unclear. Here, we used a 12-year warming experiment to determine how warming affected diazotrophic abundance, community composition, and nifH transcription in the roots and rhizosphere of the invasive plant Solidago canadensis during the growing and flowering stages. While warming increased plant biomass, it did not increase diazotrophic abundance or nifH transcription in either roots or rhizosphere soil. In the rhizosphere, warming even suppressed nifH transcription during flowering, which coincided with pronounced shifts in the rhizosphere metabolome and diazotrophic community composition, particularly among Bradyrhizobium-affiliated taxa. By contrast, these associations were weak or absent during the growing stage, indicating that plant developmental stage and concurrent seasonal variation modulate the responses of diazotrophs to climate warming. Overall, given the relatively high N availability at our study site, warming-enhanced growth of S. canadensis was unlikely to be supported by increased inputs of newly fixed N. Instead, S. canadensis may have met its increased N demand primarily through morphological and physiological adjustments that favour more efficient uptake and use of existing N pools, as indicated by higher specific root length and increased leaf N-use efficiency under warming. Future studies that directly quantify N fixation rates across gradients of N availability are warranted to validate our findings, especially in N-limited conditions where biological N fixation may contribute more substantially to plant N acquisition.</p>","PeriodicalId":222,"journal":{"name":"Plant, Cell & Environment","volume":" ","pages":"10081-10095"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148917597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}