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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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.),...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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....
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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,...
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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...
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Sugarcane genetics: Underlying theory and practical application
April 2025
Sugarcane is recognized as the fifth largest crop globally, supplying 80% of sugar and 40% of bioenergy production. However, sugarcane genetic research has significantly lagged behind other crops due...
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Chalcone isomerase gene (OsCHI3) increases rice drought tolerance by scavenging ROS via flavonoid and ABA metabolic pathways
April 2025
The chalcone isomerase gene OsCHI, one of the key genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, plays an important role in rice (Oryza sativa) resistance to abiotic stresses. This study reveals how the...
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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...
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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...
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QTL IciMapping: Integrated software for genetic linkage map construction and quantitative trait locus mapping in biparental populations
June 2015
QTL IciMapping is freely available public software capable of building high-density linkage maps and mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) in biparental populations. Eight functionalities are integrated...
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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)....
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Genetic sources and loci for wheat head blast resistance identified by genome-wide association analysis
June 2022
The emergence and spread of wheat blast caused by fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum is a threat to global wheat production. The resistance level and genetic loci for blast resistance...
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Cell signaling mechanisms and metabolic regulation of germination and dormancy in barley seeds
December 2017
During germination of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) seeds, important morphological and physiological changes take place, including development of organs and tissues and activation of metabolic pathways....
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Development of herbicide resistance genes and their application in rice
February 2022
Rice is one of the most important food crops in the world. Weeds seriously affect the rice yield and grain quality. In recent years, there are tremendous progresses in the research and application of...
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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...
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Genetic dissection of drought resistance for trait improvement in crops
August 2023
Reliance on agriculture for food security is a constant in all modern societies. Global climate change and population growth have put immense pressure on sustainable agriculture, exacerbating the effects...
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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...
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