Magnesium deficiency in plants: An urgent problem
April 2016
Although magnesium (Mg) is one of the most important nutrients, involved in many enzyme activities and the structural stabilization of tissues, its importance as a macronutrient ion has been overlooked...
Interplay of light and nitrogen for plant growth and development
June 2025
Light and nitrogen (N) are two critically environmental factors essential for plant survival, as they constitute the fundamental molecular framework of plant cells and significantly influence patterns...
Synergistic and antagonistic interactions between potassium and magnesium in higher plants
April 2021
Magnesium (Mg) affects various critical physiological and biochemical processes in higher plants, and its deficiency impedes plant growth and development. Although potassium (K)-induced Mg deficiency...
Far-red light: A regulator of plant morphology and photosynthetic capacity
April 2022
Plant photosynthetic capacity directly determines crop yield. Light quality regulates photosynthetic capacity. This review discusses plant responses to far-red light from the phenotypic to the molecular...
RNAi technologies for insect control in crop protection
August 2025
RNA interference (RNAi) has been used for agricultural insect pest control based on silencing of targeted insect genes. However, the effectiveness of RNAi and its applications in insect pest control...
Harnessing metabolomics for enhanced crop drought tolerance
April 2025
Global crop productivity faces a significant threat from climate change-induced drought stress (DS), which is vital for sustainable agriculture and global food security. Uncovering DS adaptation and...
The impact of high-temperature stress on rice: Challenges and solutions
October 2021
Heat stress (HS) caused by rapidly warming climate has become a serious threat to global food security. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food crop for over half of the world’s population, and its...
Artificial intelligence redefines agricultural genetics by unlocking the enigma of genomic complexity
Available online 13 June 2025
Salt tolerance in rice: Physiological responses and molecular mechanisms
February 2022
Crop yield loss due to soil salinization is an increasing threat to agriculture worldwide. Salt stress drastically affects the growth, development, and grain productivity of rice (Oryza sativa L.),...
High-throughput phenotyping: Breaking through the bottleneck in future crop breeding
June 2021
With the rapid development of genetic analysis techniques and crop population size, phenotyping has become the bottleneck restricting crop breeding. Breaking through this bottleneck will require phenomics,...
Advances in the study of auxin early response genes: Aux/IAA, GH3, and SAUR
August 2024
Auxin plays a crucial role in all aspects of plant growth and development. Auxin can induce the rapid and efficient expression of some genes, which are named auxin early response genes (AERGs), mainly...
The power of small signaling peptides in crop and horticultural plants
June 2025
Small signaling peptides, generally comprising fewer than 100 amino acids, act as crucial signaling molecules in cell-to-cell communications. Upon perception by their membrane-localized corresponding...
Enemies at peace: Recent progress in Agrobacterium-mediated cereal transformation
April 2024
Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated plant transformation is a versatile tool for plant genetic engineering following its discovery nearly half a century ago. Numerous modifications were made in its application...
Amino acid derivatives as regulatory molecules: Mechanisms in plant growth and stress tolerance
June 2025
Plants produce many amino acid derivatives (AADs). Some have been used by humans as medicines and nutrients, but many also act as phytochemical signals in plant growth and stress tolerance. The fluctuating...
The regulatory network behind maize seed germination: Effects of temperature, water, phytohormones, and nutrients
August 2021
Seed germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed. It requires suitable conditions and environmental factors. Maize is one of the most important crops worldwide. Germination influences...
JAZ proteins: Key regulators of plant growth and stress response
December 2024
The jasmonate ZIM-domain (JAZ) family of proteins serves as co-receptors and transcriptional repressors of jasmonic acid (JA) in plants. Their functional diversity and multiple roles make them important...
Molecular mechanisms of salinity tolerance in rice
June 2021
Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses which impose constraints to plant growth and production. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple food crops and a model monocot plant....
PlantGaussian: Exploring 3D Gaussian splatting for cross-time, cross-scene, and realistic 3D plant visualization and beyond
April 2025
Observing plants across time and diverse scenes is critical in uncovering plant growth patterns. Classic methods often struggle to observe or measure plants against complex backgrounds and at different...
Function, transport, and regulation of amino acids: What is missing in rice?
June 2021
Amino acids are essential plant compounds serving as the building blocks of proteins, the predominant forms of nitrogen (N) distribution, and signaling molecules. Plant amino acids derive from root...
Single-cell nuclear transcriptomics reveal root tip adaptations to nitrogen scarcity in wheat
August 2025
Roots play a critical role in acquisition and utilization of nitrogen in wheat, influencing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and ultimately determining yield. However, the detailed responses of root tips...
Genes controlling grain chalkiness in rice
August 2024
With rising living standards, there is an increasing demand for high-quality rice. Rice quality is mainly defined by milling quality, appearance quality, cooking and eating quality, and nutrition quality....
Origin, evolution, and molecular function of DELLA proteins in plants
April 2022
Gibberellic acid (GA), a ubiquitous phytohormone, has various effects on regulators of plant growth and development. GAs promote growth by overcoming growth restraint mediated by DELLA proteins (DELLAs)....
Mitigating drought-associated reproductive failure in maize: From physiological mechanisms to practical solutions
August 2025
Maize serves as a crucial cereal crop globally, yet the escalating frequency of drought stress during the reproductive phase poses a significant threat to grain yield by causing an irreversible loss...
Synthetic metabolic engineering of functional crops: Boosting nutrition and human health
Available online 4 July 2025
A growing global population and the increasing prevalence of diet-related health issues such as “hidden hunger”, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes necessitate a fundamental rethinking of crop design...
The rice OsCBL3-OsCIPK31 module regulates root development via abscisic acid and auxin signaling pathways
June 2025
CALCINEURIN B-LIKE PROTEINS (CBLs) function in osmotic stress responses, root morphogenesis and ion uptake in various plants such as Arabidopsis. However, the roles of OsCBLs in regulating root growth...