Planta最新文献

{"title":"Cytokinin response factor 1 acts as a negative regulator of cytokinin-mediated developmental pathways in Arabidopsis.","authors":"Drishti Mandal, Swarnavo Chakraborty, Ronita Nag Chaudhuri","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04974-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04974-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>CRF1 functions as a negative regulator of cytokinin signaling in Arabidopsis at least in part by antagonizing ARR12-dependent SHY2 transactivation, thereby influencing primary root growth, rosette development, and leaf senescence. Cytokinin Response Factors (CRFs) are members of the AP2/ERF family of transcription factors that act downstream of the two-component cytokinin signaling pathway to regulate diverse developmental processes. In this study, we identify CRF1 as a negative regulator of cytokinin signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. Loss-of-function crf1 mutants exhibit pronounced hypersensitivity to cytokinin, characterized by stronger inhibition of primary root growth, larger rosette size, and delay in dark-induced leaf senescence, compared to wild type. Conversely, when CRF1 was overexpressed (CRF1-OX), it impaired cytokinin-induced responses in both primary root and shoot. These phenotypic alterations in response to cytokinin correlated with transcriptional changes. At the transcript level, primary cytokinin-inducible genes, like type-A and type-B ARRs, and secondary responsive genes like SHY2, were significantly upregulated in crf1 mutants in response to cytokinin, compared to wild type. SHY2 is a known Aux/IAA protein that works to repress auxin signaling, especially in primary roots. Interestingly, while the type-B ARR, ARR12, is known to transactivate SHY2 promoter, our results show that its activity is impaired in presence of CRF1. Transactivation assays clearly indicated that ARR12 could not activate SHY2 promoter when present along with CRF1, implying that CRF1 intercepts ARR12-mediated transcriptional regulation. CRF1 thus acts as a negative regulator of cytokinin signaling, acting at least in part by antagonizing ARR12-mediated gene expression. In summary, CRF1 modulates key developmental processes in Arabidopsis by regulating cytokinin responses in both primary root and shoot, and may serve as a potential target for fine-tuning plant growth and development.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147434825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hybrid seed production: new paradigms and challenges in the twenty-first century.","authors":"Mukund Kumar Thakur, Saurabh Pandey, Satish Kumar Singh, Sumeet Kumar Singh, Ashutosh Singh","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04959-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04959-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>Hybrid seed technology future depends on integrating advanced genomics, AI-driven breeding, and enabling policies to sustainably delivery climate-resilient, high-performing hybrids with broad accessibility and equitable benefits worldwide. Hybrid seeds, which exploit heterosis, have driven agricultural productivity gains since the 1920s. Understanding the genetics and molecular biology of hybrid generation led to the development of modern hybrid systems. With time, modern hybrid systems integrated advanced genomic tools such as CRISPR/Cas, marker-assisted selection (MAS), and genomic selection (GS) with established technologies like cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), restorer-of-fertility (Rf) systems, and chemical hybridizing agents (CHAs) for better hybrid production in a shorter time. Moreover, the integration of emerging approaches leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) for trait prediction, multi-parent populations to expand genetic diversity, and epigenetics to engineer climate-resilient hybrids with enhanced stress tolerance is also being explored. However, regulatory hurdles, such as divergent global policies for genetically modified (GM) hybrids, intellectual property (IP) disputes, and restricted germplasm exchange under access-and-benefit-sharing frameworks like the Nagoya Protocol, hinder innovation. Climate change exacerbates both biotic and abiotic stresses, disrupts production zones, and threatens pollinator-dependent crops, while socio-economic barriers limit the adoption of smallholder farming. Case studies of different crops demonstrate the success of hybrids, yet gaps in scalability and accessibility persist. Overall, realizing the potential of hybrid technology hinges on sustained collaboration across scientific, industrial, and policy domains to overcome technical, environmental, and socio-economic constraints. This review examines various techniques for hybrid production that incorporate genomics, future advancements, and synergies between synthetic biology, automation, and predictive breeding, as well as policies that strike a balance between intellectual property protection and germplasm accessibility for hybrid seed production.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147434835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Polyploid plant genomes complexity and the challenges of sequencing.","authors":"Aaron W Anderson, Emidio Albertini, Daniele Rosellini","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04952-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04952-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>Whole-genome duplication is an important evolutionary mechanism for many agriculturally important plants. We discuss selected polyploid genomic studies, limitations, and practical applications in plant breeding. Polyploids are highly represented among agriculturally important plant species. Understanding how plant genomes change in response to whole-genome duplication is important for streamlining the use of diploid germplasm in polyploid breeding programs to introduce new alleles, genes, or desirable traits. The complexity of polyploid genomes stemming from their diverse evolutionary histories poses challenges for assembling high-quality, haplotype-resolved genome sequences, a necessary step for optimizing plant breeding efforts. In this review, we examined genomic studies that yielded high-quality reference genomes through novel approaches in various polyploid crop species. Examples include using references of progenitor species in peanut and blueberry, tackling the mixed-ploidy levels of sugarcane and dealing with species complexes in wheat and alfalfa. We also highlighted the new and innovative approaches to polyploid genome sequencing used in these studies as well as others. These methods and tools can be especially useful in species where genomic studies are not advanced, to provide insights on adapting techniques in other polyploid species to create more refined genomic studies crop improvement.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12971746/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147390556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Root-specific cytokinin catabolism promotes Nicotiana root growth and resilience to drought stress.","authors":"Aniruddhabhai Khuman, Bhupendra Chaudhary","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04967-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04967-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>Root-specific CKX overexpression enhances root architecture, improves drought resilience, and upregulates stress-responsive gene expression, thereby promoting  growth, seed yield, and overall stress tolerance in tobacco under drought stress. Drought stress is a global challenge that reduces crop yields, and is intensified by climate change. Cytokinins (CKs) play a crucial role in plant drought responses which are regulated by enzyme activity and genetic factors. To reveal the physiological effects of cytokinin catabolism on the root architecture under water stress conditions, we perform root-specific ectopic overexpression of the cytokinin-degrading CKX gene using WRKY6 gene promoter in tobacco. The overexpression lines show up to 18% increased plant height, > 30% increase in root length, and over twofold root biomass compared to wild-type (WT) plants. Enhanced root architecture in CKX lines is associated with extent of cytokinin catabolism, which improves nutrient uptake and water absorption, thereby supporting better plant growth. The CKX lines also demonstrate improved drought resilience in both soil- and hydroponic-based systems. Under water stress, the overexpression lines display superior growth, timely flowering, more than a 70% increase in seed formation, and over 27% higher seed germination compared to the WT plants. The CKX lines also maintain better electrolyte balance, higher chlorophyll retention, and increased antioxidant activity. Temporal global gene expression profiling under drought stress in tobacco revealed substantial variations in the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), with 6,975 differentially expressed genes after 8 h treatment. Among these DEGs, at least 21 genes were consistently upregulated across all drought stress time points. RT-PCR validation of key drought-responsive genes, viz. NtDREB3, NtP5CS, NtERD, NtLEA5, and NtLTP1 in CKX overexpression lines under water deficit suggest their role in drought adaptation. These findings on the hormonal regulation of root growth could be useful in developing drought-resilient crops.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147366490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mechanism of cadmium tolerance in Brassica juncea: an insight from comparative physiology and transcriptomics of two cultivars.","authors":"Yongni Wu, Yi Yao, Bingyan Gong, Yanyan Wang, Xujie Dong, Chaozhen Zeng, Zhixiang Liu","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04969-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04969-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>The B. juncea cv. BJ was more tolerant of Cd than the cv. JTN, and exhibited a strong tolerance to Cd via regulating antioxidant systems, sulfur metabolism, and the glutathione biosynthesis pathway. The findings offer a strategy for cultivar selection in Cd-contaminated soil phytoremediation. Cadmium (Cd) is considered one of the most poisonous metallic elements in the environment, posing a considerable threat to plant growth and productivity. Brassica juncea is anticipated to be a candidate plant for the phytoremediation of Cd contamination. In this study, different cultivars of B. juncea were used to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the greater Cd tolerance of BJ (Cd tolerant) compared to JTN (Cd sensitive) by examining growth, antioxidant enzyme activity, non-enzymatic antioxidant content, and Cd transport. The results showed that BJ effectively mitigated the reduction in biomass, cell viability, and photosynthetic pigment levels, as well as the increase in malondialdehyde content and relative conductivity, in comparison with JTN. Furthermore, BJ exhibited enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and augmented levels of non-enzymatic antioxidants. A total of 11,774 differentially expressed genes were discovered between BJ and JTN. Notably, there was a rise in the expression levels of adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate kinases (APK) genes (APK1 and APK4) and glutathione (GSH) synthetase genes (GSH1 and GSH2) linked to ATP production in the sulfur metabolic pathway and GSH synthesis pathway. Conversely, there was a decrease in the relative expression levels of ATP sulfurylase (ATPS) genes (APS1, APS2, and APS4), which regulate sulfate-activating functions and enzymatic activities associated with the GSH pathway intended to alleviate Cd stress.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147355891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Smart farming approaches in medicinal plant cultivation: a review of techniques, benefits, and sustainability.","authors":"Sanjeev Khan, Nutan Pathania, Pawan Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Jitender Kumar, Nitesh Kumar, Arti Sharma","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04960-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04960-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>Smart farming technologies significantly enhance medicinal plant cultivation by improving yield, quality, and sustainability, while addressing traditional challenges through precision, automation, and data-driven decision-making. Medicinal plants have played a vital role in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. However, traditional cultivation methods face challenges, such as variable yield due to environmental stress and suboptimal resource use. While pharmacopeias already define strict quality parameters for medicinal plant material, smart farming technologies can further support consistency, sustainability, and efficiency in cultivation. This review critically examines the integration of smart farming technologies to optimize the biological mechanisms governing the growth and phytochemical production of medicinal plants. This paper focuses on key physiological processes including photosynthesis regulation, nutrient uptake, stress response, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis, which are directly influenced by precision irrigation, AI-driven nutrient management, and controlled-environment agriculture. Countries such as the Netherlands (80%), Japan (75%), and the USA (70%) are leading adopters, using automated greenhouses, artificial intelligence crop analytics, and drones. Key medicinal crops benefiting include Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, Panax ginseng Makino, Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench, Lavandula angustifolia Mill., Ocimum sanctum L., Hypericum perforatum L., Cinnamomum verum J.Presl, and Coriandrum sativum L. Techniques, such as precision irrigation, soil health monitoring, artificial intelligence-based pest detection, controlled-environment agriculture, and drone surveillance, have shown major improvements. Empirical studies report improvements in water efficiency and phytochemical yields in these plants, with the results derived from empirical trials conducted in controlled settings. However, scalability and economic feasibility of these technologies in diverse climatic regions remain challenges. Despite these gains, barriers like high costs, limited tech literacy, infrastructure gaps, and regulatory hurdles remain. Addressing these through funding, education, and policy change is essential. Future integration of genomics and metabolomics could further boost yield, quality, and sustainability. This review advances the field by providing a comprehensive framework for adopting smart farming in medicinal plant cultivation, linking technology trends with practical outcomes and global adoption insights.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147355821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anther and pollen thermotolerance: molecular mechanisms and implications for plant reproduction under heat stress.","authors":"Amina Aftab, Kasireddy Sivasankarreddy, Jiji Joseph","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04962-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04962-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>This work highlights pollen thermotolerance as vital for reproductive success under heat stress, integrating molecular regulation, gene mapping, and breeding strategies to accelerate development of resilient, high-yielding crop varieties. Heat stress has emerged as a major abiotic constraint that significantly reduces crop productivity under changing climatic conditions. The reproductive phase is among the most heat-sensitive stages of plant development. High temperatures disrupt multiple reproductive processes, including anther development, tapetal functioning, microsporogenesis, pollen maturation, and pollen-pistil interactions, thereby compromising fertilization success and crop yield. To counteract these detrimental effects, plants have evolved adaptive mechanisms that enable reproductive tissues to maintain functionality under high-temperature stress. Pollen thermotolerance, defined as the ability of pollen grains to withstand high temperatures and produce functional pollen grains for successful fertilization, is a key determinant of crop yield stability. This review provides a focused synthesis of the cellular and molecular mechanisms, such as heat shock protein expression, antioxidant defense systems, hormonal signaling, and epigenetic regulation, that collectively confer pollen thermotolerance. Furthermore, we examine how recent applications of omics technologies (transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) and genomic approaches that provide comprehensive understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying pollen thermotolerance. By integrating these mechanistic insights with quantitative and predictive modeling, researchers can more effectively identify and deploy heat-resilient reproductive traits. This integrated approach is essential for accelerating the development of heat-resilient crop varieties to ensure stable agricultural productivity in future.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147366534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding plant resilience by putting photosynthesis and photorespiration in the metabolic context.","authors":"Berkley J Walker, Wheaton L Schroeder","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04961-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04961-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>Photorespiration is a dynamic metabolic process that contributes to energy balance, stress resilience, and nutrient flux, warranting its integration into genome-scale models to enhance plant productivity and climate adaptation. Photorespiration, sometimes referred to as a wasteful byproduct of rubisco's oxygenation activity, is increasingly recognized as a vital and multifaceted component of plant metabolism. This perspective explores three underappreciated roles of photorespiration: as an alternative energy sink, a marker of stress resilience, and a metabolic hub. Photorespiration consumes significant ATP and reducing equivalents, potentially serving as a photoprotective mechanism under environmental stress. However, its role in energy dissipation remains debated, particularly in relation to non-photochemical quenching. Stress conditions such as drought and heat elevate photorespiratory flux due to Rubisco kinetics and stomatal responses, yet the link between photorespiration and resilience is complex and species-dependent. Metabolites like serine and glycine, key intermediates in photorespiration, correlate with stress responses and may exit the canonical pathway, contributing to one-carbon metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis. Calculations suggest that serine export from photorespiration could explain nitrate assimilation rates, yet protein synthesis alone cannot account for this flux, indicating unknown metabolic sinks. Genome-scale metabolic models (GSMMs) and resource allocation models (RAMs) offer promising tools to integrate photorespiration into broader metabolic frameworks. These models can simulate open-loop versus closed-loop photorespiration, assess energy dissipation capacity, and track amino acid fate. Future research should focus on refining GSMMs to include accurate photorespiratory pathways and leveraging them to understand photorespiration's role in plant resilience and nutrition, especially under realistic field conditions. This integrated approach is essential for reimagining photorespiration not as a metabolic burden, but as a central player in plant adaptation and productivity.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12963159/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147355838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decoding the multifunctional role of γ-aminobutyric acid in plant adaptation to drought stress.","authors":"Hossam S El-Beltagi, Mohamed Abdel-Haleem, Tarek A Shalaby, Emad H Khedr","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04965-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04965-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Main conclusion: </strong>GABA acts as a central integrator of molecular, physiological, and metabolic responses, enhancing drought tolerance by improving water-use efficiency, osmotic balance, redox homeostasis, and stress signaling. Drought is one of the most severe abiotic stresses, limiting plant growth, yield, and global food security under climate change and resource scarcity. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a non-proteinogenic amino acid, acts as a multifunctional regulator of plant drought tolerance by orchestrating physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses. GABA enhances osmotic adjustment, antioxidant defense, and stomatal regulation, promotes proline accumulation, and interacts with polyamines and hormonal pathways such as ABA, collectively improving water-use efficiency and mitigating oxidative stress. Its metabolism and signaling integrate diverse cellular processes, enabling efficient stress perception, adaptation, and maintenance of cellular homeostasis. GABA also coordinates metabolic crosstalk, supporting stress-responsive networks that enhance resilience under water-limited conditions. By modulating these interconnected pathways, GABA contributes to improved plant survival, growth, and productivity during drought. Exploiting GABA-mediated mechanisms offers promising strategies for enhancing crop drought tolerance, sustaining agricultural productivity, and guiding future research toward practical applications. This review synthesizes current knowledge on GABA's multifunctional role in drought adaptation, encompassing metabolic regulation, physiological responses, stomatal control, antioxidant systems, and interactions with polyamines, providing an integrated perspective on its potential to improve plant resilience under increasingly frequent and severe water-deficit conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147355859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of ubiquitination in regulating secondary metabolism in plants: mechanistic insights and biological significance.","authors":"Kai Song, Zhijing Yu, Yashi Wen, Xiaoyu Xu, Jingying Liu, Mei Wang","doi":"10.1007/s00425-026-04954-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00425-026-04954-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ubiquitination is a highly conserved and crucial post-translational modification that regulates protein turnover, signal transduction, and stress response in plants. Recent studies have shown that ubiquitination also plays a critical role in regulating secondary metabolism, a key factor in plant defense, environmental adaptation, and developmental transitions. By controlling the stability, activity, and regulatory functions of biosynthetic enzymes, transcription factors, and signaling molecules, ubiquitination dynamically influences metabolic flux and the accumulation of major classes of secondary metabolites. These changes, in turn, affect physiological processes such as the balance between growth and defense, resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses, and ecological interactions. This review consolidates current mechanistic insights into how ubiquitination governs the terpenoid, phenolic, and nitrogen-containing metabolic pathways, emphasizes the functional implications of these regulatory processes for plant performance, and outlines future research directions to link molecular mechanisms with metabolic outputs and plant-level phenotypes.</p>","PeriodicalId":20177,"journal":{"name":"Planta","volume":"263 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147355824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}