BnaGSTU11, a glutathione S-transferase in Brassica napus, enhances defense responses against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
October 2026
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (S. sclerotiorum) is a highly destructive fungal pathogen that causes substantial yield losses in rapeseed. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) play key roles in plant defense...
Strategies in Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping for Complex Traits in Maize
Available online 14 June 2026
Maize (Zea mays L.) is central to global food security and agricultural sustainability, serving as an important source of food, animal feed, and renewable bioenergy. However, improving maize productivity...
Meiotic recombination assembles complementary parental alleles in an elite soybean line
Available online 30 May 2026
Crop hybrid breeding relies on homologous recombination to generate novel allele combinations that facilitate the assembly of superior agronomic traits. However, the extent to which recombination shapes...
How does salicylic acid activate plant immunity?
Available online 26 May 2026
Salicylic acid (SA) is a phytohormone central to plant immune responses, orchestrating both local defense and systemic acquired resistance (SAR), a broad-spectrum and long-lasting immune state. Upon...
Insights into the Regulatory Pattern Classification for Functional Alleles Underlying Trait Variation in Maize and Other Crops
Available online 14 May 2026
Natural genetic variation in diverse populations has long served as a key resource for crop improvement through genomic selection and genome editing. Despite advances in sequencing, genome assembly,...
Harnessing Super Pan-genomics for Accelerated Crop Improvement
Available online 29 April 2026
While a pan-genome that reflects the genetic diversity within a species is fundamental to crop improvement, a super pan-genome adds a dimension by capturing the genetic diversity of a crop species together...
Monitoring transcription by nascent RNA sequencing in crop plants
December 2025
Plants can quickly adapt to changing environments and external stimuli by undergoing a series of transcriptional responses. The process of maturing nascent RNA (direct product of transcription) into...
Design of rice with low cadmium accumulation in grain using single segment substitution line
December 2025
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a major dietary source of cadmium (Cd). Developing rice varieties with reduced Cd levels in the grain is a cost-effective and practical approach to enhance food safety, particularly...
The role of epigenetics in tomato stress adaptation
December 2025
Climate change poses a major challenge to agriculture, affecting crop production through shifting weather patterns and an increase in extreme conditions such as heat waves, droughts, and floods, all...
Unveiling CRISPR/Cas in rapeseed: Triumphs, trials, and tomorrow
December 2025
The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) genome-editing technique has revolutionized our understanding of plant genomes. Over a decade ago, scientists began using CRISPR/Cas...
Boosting crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency: the hidden power of nitrogen-iron balance
December 2025
The macronutrient nitrogen (N) and micronutrient iron (Fe) are essential mineral elements for plant growth and development and participate in multiple vital life activities through intricate interactions....
Molecular mechanisms of rice seed germination
December 2025
Rice is a fundamental dietary worldwide. With the increasing adoption of direct seeding in rice cultivation, the need for rapid and synchronized germination, even under submerged conditions, has become...
Perspectives on developing natural colored cotton through carotenoid biofortification
December 2025
Cotton is a fundamental component of the textile industry, dominating natural fiber production globally. Besides textiles, cotton plays diverse roles such as producing cooking oil, seed feed, and even...
Meiosis in plants: From understanding to manipulation
December 2025
Meiosis is an indispensable process in sexual reproduction, involving the recombination of genetic information and the production of haploid gamete cells through the segregation of sister chromatids....
Genomic and modern biotechnological strategies for enhancing salt tolerance in crops
December 2025
Extreme climate change and rapid population growth present significant challenges to global food security. Among these challenges, salt stress is a critical abiotic factor adversely affecting agricultural...
Epigenomic studies in sorghum reveal differential enrichment of multiple histone marks at clade A PP2C genes in response to drought
December 2025
Epigenetic regulation is essential for plant development and stress responses, as numerous stress-responsive genes are modulated epigenetically. However, most research has focused on individual histone...
Facing chilling, kinase-transcription factors relay cold tolerance signals
December 2025
Rice (Oryza sativa L.), native to tropical regions, is highly vulnerable to low temperatures, limiting its geographical range and posing a substantial threat to global rice production. Our understanding...
FREE1 condensates mediate energy-independent membrane remodeling via wetting
December 2025
Membrane-bound and membrane-less organelles are vital for the structured organization and functional synchronization of cellular components. While much is known about their individual roles, the interactions...
Advances and prospects of plant mitochondrial pentatricopeptide repeat proteins in post-transcriptional processing
December 2025
The pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein is integral to various post-transcriptional processing functions of precursor RNA in plant mitochondria and plastids. It plays a significant role in seed development,...
Molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to low phosphate stress and potential applications in crop improvement
December 2025
Phosphorus is a critical nutrient for plant growth, influencing crop development and yield. However, the excessive reliance on phosphate fertilizers to address inorganic phosphate (Pi) deficiency is...
ZmASR6 positively regulates salt stress tolerance in maize
December 2025
High salinity stress severely impacts plant growth and yield. ABA, stress, ripening (ASR) proteins play critical roles in plant responses to various abiotic stresses. This study characterizes a salt-induced...
The selection and utilization of heading date loci in modern wheat breeding
December 2025
Heading and flowering timing are critical factors in wheat breeding for variety adaptation and yield. In this study, we identified four key QTLs associated with these traits in 406 accessions across...
E2 family and evening complex identify soybean photoperiod sensitivity
December 2025
Soybean is a facultative short-day plant, and its high photoperiod sensitivity poses challenges for breeding widely adapted soybean cultivars. Although the genetic basis of photoperiod in plants has...
The development and prospects of insect-resistant crops expressing double-strand RNAs
December 2025
RNA interference (RNAi) triggered by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) has shown effectiveness against many major agricultural insect pests worldwide. With its remarkable specificity and high efficiency,...
