Frontiers in Plant Science最新文献

{"title":"Gravacin as an inhibitor of the auxin transport-activating protein kinase D6PK in <i>Arabidopsis</i>.","authors":"Meng Chen, Zhisen Yang, Yakun Peng, Lianghanxiao Sun, Xin Liu, Linfeng Sun, Shutang Tan","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1563571","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1563571","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The phytohormone auxin plays a central role in plant growth and development. D6PK, a member of the AGC kinase family, phosphorylates PIN-FORMED (PIN) auxin transporters, thereby regulating PIN activity and polar auxin transport. In this study, we demonstrated that gravacin, a synthetic compound, functions as an inhibitor that targets D6PK in plants. Physiological and cell biology experiments revealed that the phenotypes of gravacin-treated plants were similar to those of <i>d6pk d6pkl1 d6pkl2 (d0 d1 d2)</i> triple mutants. Furthermore, <i>in vitro</i> kinase assays confirmed that gravacin directly inhibited the kinase activity of D6PK. Thus, by combining phenotypic analysis with cell biological and biochemical experiments, this research revealed that gravacin is an inhibitor of D6PK and elucidated the underlying mechanism. Our work provides a chemical tool that can be used to further dissect the role of D6PK and related physiological processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1563571"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11938129/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synergy of osmotic adjustment and antioxidant activity in <i>Catalpa bungei</i>: alleviating persistent drought stress from SL to NSL.","authors":"Xiaochi Yu, Junhui Wang, Wenjun Ma, Fei Yi, Peng Zhang","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1536795","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1536795","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong><i>Catalpa bungei</i> C. A. Mey is a precious timber and garden tree species native to China. It is mainly distributed in the semi-arid regions of northern China, where drought stress severely affects its growth.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we investigated the physiological responses and gene expression profiles of <i>C. bungei</i> seedlings subjected to a 28-day drought stress treatment.</p><p><strong>Results and discussion: </strong>By reducing stomatal conductance (Cond) and increasing proline (Pro) and soluble sugar contents (SS), <i>C. bungei</i> alleviated mild drought stress (7-14 days). Under moderate drought stress (14-21 days), a synergistic interaction of jasmonic acid (JA) and abscisic acid (ABA) enhanced catalase (CAT) activity and proline (Pro) content, while downregulating guard cell osmotic potential, thereby further decreasing stomatal conductance (Cond). Upon reaching severe drought stress (21-28 days, SWC 22%, LWC 73%), the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the content of osmotic substances continued to increase, while the structure of photosynthetic organs was damaged, resulting in a shift from stomatal limitation (SL) to non-stomatal limitation (NSL). Therefore, <i>C. bungei</i> mitigates mild drought stress through osmotic regulation, and ABA and JA coordinate antioxidant defenses and osmotic regulation as drought persists. Once the shift from SL to NSL caused by severe drought stress, the aforementioned mechanism ceases to be effective in mitigating the deleterious effects of drought stress on <i>C. bungei</i>. These findings enhance our comprehension of the mechanisms underlying <i>C. bungei</i>'s response to prolonged drought, providing valuable insights for the precise evaluation of drought intensity and facilitating efficient management of <i>C. bungei</i> plantations.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1536795"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11936999/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the stability of indoor farming systems using data outlier detection.","authors":"Jean Pompeo, Ziwen Yu, Chi Zhang, Songzi Wu, Ying Zhang, Celina Gomez, Melanie Correll","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2024.1270544","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2024.1270544","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>This study investigates the quality of air temperature data collected from a small-scale Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) system using low-cost IoT sensors during lettuce cultivation at four different temperatures. Ensuring data quality in CEA systems is essential, as it affects system stability and operational efficiency. This research aims to assess system stability by analyzing the correlation between cumulative agricultural operations (Agr.Ops) and air temperature data variability.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The methodology involved collecting air temperature data from IoT sensors in the CEA system throughout lettuce cultivation trials. A generalized linear model regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between cumulative Agr.Ops and the z-scores of air temperature residuals, which served as an indicator of system stability. Outliers in the sensor data were identified and analyzed to evaluate their impact on system performance. Residual distribution and curve fitting techniques were used to determine the best distribution model for the sensor data, with a log-normal distribution found to be the best fit.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Regression analysis indicated a strong inverse relationship between cumulative Agr.Ops and residual z-scores, suggesting that increased Agr.Ops correlated with a higher presence of outliers and a decrease in system stability. The residual analysis highlighted that outliers could be attributed to potential issues such as sensor noise, drift, or other sources of uncertainty in data collection. Across different trials, the system displayed varying degrees of resistance to cumulative Agr.Ops, with some trials showing increased resilience over time.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The alternative decomposition method used effectively identified outliers and provided valuable insights into the functionality of the system under different operational loads. This study highlights the importance of addressing uncertainties in indoor farming systems by improving surrogate data models, refining sensor selection, and ensuring data redundancy. The proposed method offers a promising approach for enhancing monitoring and managing uncertainties in CEA systems, contributing to improved stability and efficiency in indoor farming.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"15 ","pages":"1270544"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11938842/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multi-objective RGB-D fusion network for non-destructive strawberry trait assessment.","authors":"Zhenzhen Cheng, Yifan Cheng, Bailing Miao, Tingting Fang, Shoufu Gong","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1564301","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1564301","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Growing consumer demand for high-quality strawberries has highlighted the need for accurate, efficient, and non-destructive methods to assess key postharvest quality traits, such as weight, size uniformity, and quantity. This study proposes a multi-objective learning algorithm that leverages RGB-D multimodal information to estimate these quality metrics. The algorithm develops a fusion expert network architecture that maximizes the use of multimodal features while preserving the distinct details of each modality. Additionally, a novel Heritable Loss function is implemented to reduce redundancy and enhance model performance. Experimental results show that the coefficient of determination (R²) values ​​for weight, size uniformity and number are 0.94, 0.90 and 0.95 respectively. Ablation studies demonstrate the advantage of the architecture in multimodal, multi-task prediction accuracy. Compared to single-modality models, non-fusion branch networks, and attention-enhanced fusion models, our approach achieves enhanced performance across multi-task learning scenarios, providing more precise data for trait assessment and precision strawberry applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1564301"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11937088/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comprehensive characterization of the WRKY gene family and their potential roles in regulation phenylphenalenone biosynthesis in <i>Musella lasiocarpa</i>.","authors":"Long Huang, Pirui Li, Mei Tian, Xu Feng, Yu Chen, Boya Feng, Wanli Zhao","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1570758","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1570758","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Phenylphenalenone is an important phytoalexin for banana plant protection, yet the mechanisms governing its biosynthesis and regulation remain unclear in plant. WRKY transcription factors play essential roles in modulating plant growth, development, and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. In this study, we identified 158 WRKY genes (<i>MlWRKYs</i>) from a phenylphenalenone-rich plant species <i>Musella lasiocarpa</i>. Phylogenetic analysis classified the <i>MlWRKY</i> genes into three distinct subfamilies: type I, type II, and type III. Chromosomal distribution revealed that the <i>MlWRKY</i> genes are clustered on nine respective chromosomes. Additionally, synteny analysis between <i>M. lasiocarpa</i> and <i>Musa balbisiana</i> uncovered highly conserved collinear regions. <i>MIWRKY15</i>, <i>MIWRKY111</i>, <i>MIWRKY122</i> were identified as candidate genes for regulating PhPNs biosynthesis by integration of multi-omics approaches. We further investigated the expression pattern of <i>MIWRKY15</i>, <i>MIWRKY111</i>, <i>MIWRKY122</i> genes, as well as their putative target genes <i>MlOMT22</i> and <i>MlOMT27</i>, the known phenylphenalenone biosynthesis genes in various tissues, including leaves, stems, roots, and seeds. <i>MlWRKY15</i> and <i>MlOMT22</i> showed similar expression patterns across tissues. <i>MlWRKY122</i> and <i>MlOMT27</i> also displayed consistent expression patterns, suggesting <i>MlWRKY122</i> may regulate <i>MlOMT27</i>. Additionally, <i>MlWRKY111</i>'s expression was inversely correlated with <i>MlOMT27</i>, indicating a potential negative regulation of <i>MlOMT27</i> by <i>MlWRKY111</i>. This study provides valuable insights into the WRKY family in <i>M. lasiocarpa</i> and will serve as a useful genetic resource for elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of phenylphenalenone biosynthesis.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1570758"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11936918/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"YO-AFD: an improved YOLOv8-based deep learning approach for rapid and accurate apple flower detection.","authors":"Dandan Wang, Huaibo Song, Bo Wang","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1541266","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1541266","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The timely and accurate detection of apple flowers is crucial for assessing the growth status of fruit trees, predicting peak blooming dates, and early estimating apple yields. However, challenges such as variable lighting conditions, complex growth environments, occlusion of apple flowers, clustered flowers and significant morphological variations, impede precise detection. To overcome these challenges, an improved YO-AFD method based on YOLOv8 for apple flower detection was proposed. First, to enable adaptive focus on features across different scales, a new attention module, ISAT, which integrated the Inverted Residual Mobile Block (IRMB) with the Spatial and Channel Synergistic Attention (SCSA) module was designed. This module was then incorporated into the C2f module within the network's neck, forming the C2f-IS module, to enhance the model's ability to extract critical features and fuse features across scales. Additionally, to balance attention between simple and challenging targets, a regression loss function based on Focaler Intersection over Union (FIoU) was used for loss function calculation. Experimental results showed that the YO-AFD model accurately detected both simple and challenging apple flowers, including small, occluded, and morphologically diverse flowers. The YO-AFD model achieved an F1 score of 88.6%, mAP50 of 94.1%, and mAP50-95 of 55.3%, with a model size of 6.5 MB and an average detection speed of 5.3 ms per image. The proposed YO-AFD method outperforms five comparative models, demonstrating its effectiveness and accuracy in real-time apple flower detection. With its lightweight design and high accuracy, this method offers a promising solution for developing portable apple flower detection systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1541266"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11936985/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"DP202216 maize hybrids shift upper limit of C and N partitioning to grain.","authors":"Francisco Palmero, Javier A Fernandez, Jeffrey E Habben, Jeffrey R Schussler, Ben Weers, James Bing, Trevor Hefley, P V Vara Prasad, Ignacio A Ciampitti","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1459126","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1459126","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Increasing both harvest index (HI) and nitrogen (N) harvest index (NHI) is a promising approach for improving the effective use of resources in grain crops. Previous studies on maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) reported increments in different carbon (C)-N physiological and morphological traits in DP202216 hybrids (<i>ZmGos2-zmm28, event DP202216, Corteva Agrisciences</i>). The objectives of this study were to i) identify changes in the maximum limit (potential) of C and N partitioning to the grains (HI and NHI, respectively) in DP202216 maize hybrids at equal plant growth levels, and ii) determine the main factors underpinning the mechanisms associated with any observed changes in C and N partitioning to grains. Two DP202216 hybrids were evaluated with their respective wild-type (WT) controls during two field growing seasons (2022 and 2023) under three N rates (0 kg ha^-1, 150 kg ha^-1, and 300 kg ha^-1). Long-term ¹⁵N labeling was used to precisely study N remobilization fluxes. The DP202216 plants showed an increase of 2% and 5% in the upper boundary of the HI and NHI, respectively. Furthermore, the DP202216 hybrids incremented 19% the relative allocation of ¹⁵N to grains. This was translated into a higher utilization of N absorbed during vegetative stages in DP202216 hybrids, independently of the amount of N uptake. The hybrids with the DP202216 event increased 9% the number of grains per unit of plant biomass. Our study describes improvements on the upper limit of HI and NHI in DP202216 maize hybrids. We showed that the increase in C and N allocation to the reproductive organs in the DP202216 hybrids was related to higher 'relative' C and N demand by the grains. Thus, the DP202216 trait provides a new genetic tool to improve grain yield potential and yield stability via enhanced resource utilization in maize production, offering the farmers the opportunity to maximize return on investment (ROI) for N input costs.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1459126"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11937006/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A CW-type zinc finger protein is involved in RES-oxylipin signaling and the response to abiotic stress in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>.","authors":"Manuel Lange, Arthur Korte, Maximilian Fuchs, Agnes Fekete, Claudia Mueller, Barbara Dierich, Jannis Witte, Thomas Dandekar, Martin J Mueller, Susanne Berger","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1535643","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1535643","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Oxylipins regulate the response of plants to biotic and abiotic stress factors and the tolerance of unfavorable conditions. While the signaling pathway of jasmonic acid has been intensively studied, little is known about the signal transduction that mediates the responses of reactive electrophile oxylipins such as 12-oxo phytodienoic acid and prostaglandins.</p><p><strong>Methods and results: </strong>Here, a CW-type zinc finger protein (ZIFI1, At3g62900) was identified as a new signaling factor in a mutant screen. Transcriptome analysis of <i>Arabidopsis</i> mutants with a defect in this gene showed that the zinc finger protein is involved in regulating gene expression. Only about half (327 genes) of the about 646 genes induced by the reactive electrophilic oxylipin prostaglandin in the wild type was also up-regulated in the <i>zifi1</i> mutant. The differentially expressed genes are enriched in genes related to detoxification and responses to stress factors such as oxidative stress. Therefore, it was tested whether a defect in the zinc finger gene resulted in altered sensitivity to stress factors. The sensitivity to the reactive oxygen species butyl hydroperoxide and to the xenobiotic triiodobenzoic acid was increased in the mutant. In addition, production of reactive oxygen species induced by the bacterial elicitor flg22 was accelerated.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The results provide new insights into the factors involved in the signaling of reactive electrophiles and the connection of different stress signaling pathways.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1535643"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11937836/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143718542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nitrogen fertilization form and energetic status as target points conditioning rice responsiveness to elevated [CO₂].","authors":"Ivan Jauregui, Toshiaki Mitsui, Bertrand Gakière, Caroline Mauve, Françoise Gilard, Iker Aranjuelo, Marouane Baslam","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1517360","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1517360","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The nitrogen (N) fertilization form and plant energy status are known to significantly influence plant responses to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations. However, a close examination of the interplay between N sources under contrasting light intensity has been notably absent in the literature. In this study, we conducted a factorial experiment with rice plants involving two different light intensities (150 and 300 µmol m^-2 s^-1), inorganic N sources [nitrate (N-NO₃) or ammonium nitrate (N-NH₄NO₃)] at varying CO₂ levels (410 and 700 parts per million, ppm). The aim was to examine the individual and combined effects of these factors on the allocation of biomass in whole plants, as well as on leaf-level photosynthetic characteristics, chloroplast morphology and development, ATP content, ionomics, metabolomics, and hormone profiles. Our research hypothesis posits that mixed nutrition enhances plant responsiveness to elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) at both light levels compared to sole N-NO₃ nutrition, due to its diminished energy demands for plant assimilation. Our findings indicate that N-NO₃ nutrition does not promote the growth of rice, its photosynthetic capacity, or N content when exposed to ambient CO₂ (aCO₂), and is significantly reduced in low light (LL) conditions. Rice plants with N-NH₄NO₃ exhibited a higher carboxylation capacity, which resulted in larger biomass (total C, tiller number, and lower root-shoot ratio) supported by higher Calvin-cycle-related sugars. The lower leaf N content and overall amino acid levels at eCO₂, particularly pronounced in N-NO₃, combined with the lower ATP content (lowest at LL and N-NO₃), may reflect the higher energy costs of N assimilation at eCO₂. We also observed significant plasticity patterns in leaves under eCO₂. Our findings highlight the importance of a thorough physiological understanding to inform innovative management practices aimed at mitigating the negative effects of climate change on plant N use efficiency.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1517360"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11933000/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143709607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The vascular-cambium-specific transcription factor PtrSCZ1 and its homologue regulate cambium activity and affect xylem development in <i>Populus trichocarpa</i>.","authors":"Yi Sun, Jianing Jiang, Qiongyue Zhang, Jinfeng Zhao, Hongyan Ma, Danning Li, Shuang Li, Chenguang Zhou, Wei Li","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1546660","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1546660","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Vascular cambium proliferates and differentiates into the secondary xylem (wood), enabling the perennial increase in stem diameter for wood formation. In our previous study, we identified 95 vascular-cambium-specific (VCS) transcription factors (TFs) in <i>Populus trichocarpa</i>.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we characterized the function of the highly vascular cambium-expressed heat shock TF among these VCSs, PtrSCZ1, using <i>PtrSCZ1</i>-overexpressing transgenic lines and gene-edited mutants in <i>P. trichocarpa</i>.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Overexpressing <i>PtrSCZ1</i> or its homolog <i>PtrSCZ3</i> (<i>OE-PtrSCZ1</i>, <i>OE-PtrSCZ3</i>) led to enhanced cambium activity, increased stem diameter, and a larger xylem proportion. CRISPR-based mutants of <i>PtrSCZ1</i> and <i>PtrSCZ3</i> exhibited phenotypes opposite to the <i>OE-PtrSCZ1</i> and <i>OE-PtrSCZ3</i> plants. This suggests that <i>PtrSCZ1</i> and <i>PtrSCZ3</i> redundantly promote cambium activity and secondary growth, leading to increased radial growth in <i>P. trichocarpa</i>. Overexpression and knockout of <i>PtrSCZ1</i> and <i>PtrSCZ3</i> significantly affected the expression of key regulatory factors of cambium (<i>PtrWOX4a</i>, <i>PtrWOX4b</i>, <i>PtrWOX13a</i>, <i>PtrPXYa</i>, <i>PtrVCM1</i>, and <i>PtrVCM2</i>) and disrupted cell wall-related gene expression. This demonstrates that <i>PtrSCZ1</i> and <i>PtrSCZ3</i> may function in cambium division activity by regulating these key cambium-associated transcription factors for wood formation.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Our work identifies <i>PtrSCZ1</i> and <i>PtrSCZ3</i> as promising target genes for enhancing wood yield through molecular breeding, and illustrates the role of vascular cambium systems in understanding lateral meristem development.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1546660"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11933121/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143709624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}