Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.019
Yong Liang, Kai Bi, Eugenio Llorens, Ella Zigdon, Sara Hailemariam, Chao-Jan Liao, Ziyao Wang, Tesfaye Mengiste, Amir Sharon
{"title":"Activation of multilayered plant immunity through spatiotemporal expression of Botrytis cinerea BcCrh1-derived dual epitopes","authors":"Yong Liang, Kai Bi, Eugenio Llorens, Ella Zigdon, Sara Hailemariam, Chao-Jan Liao, Ziyao Wang, Tesfaye Mengiste, Amir Sharon","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145784778","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}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.011
Zhiming Ma, Lei Wang, Jing Fan, Jian-Min Zhou
{"title":"Integrating Plant Immune Mechanisms, Resistance Gene Discovery, and Engineering Strategies to Improve Crop Disease Resistance","authors":"Zhiming Ma, Lei Wang, Jing Fan, Jian-Min Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.011","url":null,"abstract":"Pathogen and pests are major threats for agricultural productivity and food security. Diseases in major crops caused by pathogens or pests can reduce annual yields up to 40% (Ficke et al., 2018), resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses each year. There is an urgent need to develop innovative and sustainable technologies to protect crops from pathogens and pests and to enhance the resilience of agricultural systems. The plant immune system, which protects plants from numerous pathogens and pests, has been the focus of intensive research over the past decades. With rapid advancement in mechanistic understanding and biotechnological development, rational design of precisely regulated plant immune surveillance has become increasingly feasible. This approach is now central to breeding crops with enhanced disease/pest resistance, supporting global food security and sustainable agriculture.","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759476","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}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.013
Nicolaj Jeran, Luca Tadini, Simona Masiero, Paolo Pesaresi
{"title":"Coordinated Communication Among the Nucleus, Plastids, and Mitochondria","authors":"Nicolaj Jeran, Luca Tadini, Simona Masiero, Paolo Pesaresi","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759474","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}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.009
Liang Ma, Jingrui Li, Jianfang Li, Yandan Huo, Yongqing Yang, Caifu Jiang, Yan Guo
{"title":"Plant salt tolerance mechanisms: Classic signaling pathways, emerging frontiers, and future perspectives","authors":"Liang Ma, Jingrui Li, Jianfang Li, Yandan Huo, Yongqing Yang, Caifu Jiang, Yan Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.009","url":null,"abstract":"Global environmental changes pose severe threats to agricultural ecosystems, particularly through soil salinization, which adversely affects crop productivity and sustainability. Salt stress disrupts plant physiological processes, causing osmotic stress, ionic imbalance, and oxidative damage, thereby impairing growth and development. Understanding the mechanisms of salt tolerance and developing salt-resistant crops have therefore become critical for ensuring food security. This review synthesizes research from recent decades on plant responses to salt stress, with a focus on advances in the classic Salt Overly Sensitive (SOS) signaling pathway and its central role in sodium homeostasis. We further discuss the emerging role of epigenetic regulation in mediating salt adaptation and the integration of salt stress responses with other environmental cues under combinatorial stress conditions. Finally, we outline future research directions aimed at developing “environmentally intelligent” crops with enhanced salt tolerance through multidisciplinary approaches combining quantitative biology, genetic engineering and genome editing technologies.","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759480","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}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-12DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.010
Burcu Celebioglu, Jayanta Roy, Andrew Farmer, Stephanie English, Xingyao Yu, Xiaosa Xu, Phillip E. McClean, Paul Gepts, Travis A. Parker
{"title":"Domestication-related changes at PvMYB26 reduce pod shattering in common bean and shed light on the origins of agriculture in the Americas","authors":"Burcu Celebioglu, Jayanta Roy, Andrew Farmer, Stephanie English, Xingyao Yu, Xiaosa Xu, Phillip E. McClean, Paul Gepts, Travis A. Parker","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731562","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":"A tripartite pollen killer–protector system confers temperature-sensitive inter-subspecific reproductive isolation in rice","authors":"Gousi Li, Yaling Zhang, Haixin Yu, Yongyao Xie, Hao Luo, Yuzhu Wang, Jintao Tang, Jia Zhang, Xianrong Xie, Wubei Zong, Kehong Liu, Xinhe Wang, Yunming Long, Qiurong Song, Zhipeng Wu, Yao-Guang Liu, Letian Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.008","url":null,"abstract":"Hybrid-sterility-mediated reproductive isolation is pivotal for speciation, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms and its response to the environment remain elusive. Here, we report a temperature-sensitive pollen killer-protector system at a three-gene Sa locus for indica-japonica rice hybrid sterility. Genetic analyses identified SaFL+, a strong pollen protector from Sa-i (indica allele), and SaFL-, a weak japonica allele from Sa-j exclusively functional under high temperatures. Protein interaction, ubiquitination, and degradation assays showed that SaF+ and SaM+ from Sa-i form a pollen-killer complex to bind and ubiquitinate the reactive oxygen species scavenger COX11 for degradation in mitochondria, causing male sterility of the Sa-j pollen. Protein affinity and competitive binding assays indicated that in the Sa-i pollen, SaFL+ binds SaM+ to disrupt the killer complex and restore fertility. However, the weak protector SaFL- can bind SaM+ under high temperatures, sparing the Sa-j pollen from sterility. Synteny comparisons and haplotype analyses showed that the Sa locus originated in ancient wild rice and underwent divergence in the Oryza genus during expansion from tropical to temperate environments, which might have driven the latitudinal adaptation and reproductive isolation of rice populations. Thus, Sa represents a temperature-sensitive reproductive-isolation system associated with domestication and environmental adaptation in rice.","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731092","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}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.004
Barbara Dusak, Mengqi Liu, Stavaniya Ghosh, Birger Lindberg Møller
{"title":"Biosynthesis of nitric oxide in plants: An oxidative pathway orchestrated by the interplay of CYP79s, N-OX FMOs, and peroxidases","authors":"Barbara Dusak, Mengqi Liu, Stavaniya Ghosh, Birger Lindberg Møller","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.004","url":null,"abstract":"Nitric oxide (NO) is in the Pantheon of plant signal molecules and hormones controlling plant growth, development, and adaptation to environmental challenges. The route of NO biosynthesis in plants has remained enigmatic. Previous studies have shown the ability of peroxidases to utilize oximes for production of NO. Peroxidases are widely spread and highly expressed in plant tissues. What then is the identity of the pathway signature enzyme(s) offering tight, spatio-temporal regulation of NO production to effectuate its specific signal functions? And what are the key selection criteria to be fulfilled for genes and enzymes operating at the global level in an oxidative pathway for NO production in plants? Convergently evolved CYP79s and N-OX FMOs catalyze conversion of different amino acids into oximes. In this Perspective, we delineate how these oxygenases fine-tune spatio-temporal formation of the oximes as committed substrates for peroxidase catalyzed NO production. Based on the spatio-temporal location of the CYP79s and N-OX FMOs present in a specific plant species, NO formation in its different meristematic tissues is catalyzed by CYP79s, N-OX FMOs, or by their operation in conjunction. The oxime-based NO production is accompanied by formation of stoichiometric amounts of a diagnostic specific aldehyde detectable by GLC/LC-MS. When oximes derived from tryptophan, tyrosine, or phenylalanine are substrates for NO production, the different aldehydes formed may be oxidized to auxins. The outlined oxidative route for NO production in plants explains observations difficult to interpret in previous plant signal and hormone studies. FMOs may also contribute to NO-formation in animals.","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"1208 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705025","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":"SnRK2.5-mediated phosphorylation of PIN2 links osmotic stress signaling with auxin-dependent root adaptive growth in Arabidopsis","authors":"Shujuan Zhang, Zilong Cui, Yu Gao, Qi Liao, Wenyan Li, Siqi Yuan, Zhuomeng Li, Xinwen Zhang, Kai Ding, Wenjing Zhang, Like Shen, Jörg Kudla, Wenhua Zhang, Jing Zhang, Qun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.002","url":null,"abstract":"The spatiotemporal regulation of polar auxin transport, mediated by PIN-FORMED (PIN) efflux carriers, enables plants to coordinate developmental programs with environmental cues. Here we identify SnRK2.5, an abscisic acid (ABA)-independent member of the SNF1-related protein kinase family, as a key regulator linking osmotic stress signaling to the modulation of auxin transport in Arabidopsis. Osmotic stress-activated SnRK2.5 directly phosphorylates PIN2 at Ser237 and Ser259. Genetic and cell biological analyses demonstrate that these phosphorylation events govern PIN2 vesicular trafficking, vacuolar targeting, and transport activity. Mutating these phosphorylation sites impairs PIN2-dependent auxin redistribution, thereby compromising root tropic responses and reducing osmotic stress tolerance. Our findings reveal a regulatory mechanism whereby SnRK2.5-mediated phosphorylation of PIN2 dynamically adjusts auxin flux to optimize plant growth in response to water availability, uncovering a critical adaptive strategy in plants.","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145689364","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}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.001
Lei Guo, Muzi Li, Xi Luo, Tianlong He, Ning Ma, Shaojun Tang, Zhongchi Liu
{"title":"Integrative regulation of axillary meristem maturation and stolon fate determination in strawberry by light, gibberellin, and ZFP6","authors":"Lei Guo, Muzi Li, Xi Luo, Tianlong He, Ning Ma, Shaojun Tang, Zhongchi Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.12.001","url":null,"abstract":"The strawberry axillary-meristem can develop into a branch crown (a flowering shoot) or a stolon (a horizontal stem that produces daughter plants), with gibberellin promoting stolon fate. Despite its importance for plant architecture, asexual reproduction, and perennial growth, the regulatory mechanism governing this fate decision remains poorly understood. We found that the juvenile-to-adult transition of the axillary-meristem is marked by induction of GA20ox4 expression and the onset of stolon formation. RNA-sequencing of staged meristems identified the zinc-finger protein ZFP6, which is strongly co-expressed with GA20ox4. CRISPR knockout of ZFP6 abolished GA20ox4 expression and eliminated stolon formation, a phenotype rescued by exogenous gibberellin, demonstrating that ZFP6 acts to activate gibberellin biosynthesis and promote stolon formation. Genetic analysis of mutants in the red-light receptor PhyB, together with mutants in gibberellin biosynthesis and signaling, further revealed that red light and PhyB promote axillary-meristem maturation-a previously unrecognized developmental stage that precedes fate determination. Together, these findings illuminate how developmental stage and environmental cues converge to regulate axillary-meristem maturation and fate determination and identify a stage-specific regulator controlling the switch to stolon formation.","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":27.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145689363","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}