New Phytologist

The study of seasonal xylem hydraulics has predominantly focused on embolism-induced losses, whereas growth-driven increases in hydraulic capacity have received little attention. We assessed the intra-annual dynamics of xylem formation and gain of conductivity in the current-year ring of three species with contrasting tree-ring structure, sessile oak (Quercus petraea, ring-porous), European beech…

Schematic overview of phospholipase-mediated phospholipid hydrolysis and its impact on triacylglycerol (TAG) stability during rice bran storage.

Summary Plants can escape drought by completing life cycles early, tolerate drought by increasing physiological limits, or avoid drought stress by obtaining or using water more efficiently. It remains unclear whether strategies vary within species across their distributional ranges due to trade‐offs, and whether species can exhibit plasticity in multiple traits simultaneously. We grew 19 populati…

Summary The optimal temperature of photosynthesis ( T opt ) generally increases with plant growth temperature. Changes in T opt are associated with changes in the maximum carboxylation capacity at 25°C ( V cmax25 ) and the maximum electron transport rate at 25°C ( J max25 ). The ratio between J max25 and V cmax25 declines with warming. Accurate representation of leaf‐level photosynthetic response…

Summary The SCL13 is a Scarecrow‐like (SCL) protein. However, whether and how it plays a functional role under cold stress in apple remains largely unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that MdSCL13 responds to cold and plays a positive role in regulating apple cold tolerance. RNA‐seq and RT‐qPCR analyses revealed that MdSCL13 regulates the expression of genes associated with cold response, reac…

Most studies of the chemical ecology of plant-pollinator interactions emphasize the role of pollinator-mediated selection in shaping floral scent composition. Nevertheless, phylogeny may constrain the metabolic pathways underlying these profiles, thereby influencing the evolutionary trajectory of the emitted signals. To investigate whether phylogenetic history constrains plant chemical communicat…

Heterosis, characterized by enhanced resistance and yield, has been widely utilized in watermelon breeding. However, our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying male-sterile phenotypes in watermelon remains limited. Here, we determined that the miR159a targets ClMYB33 to regulate anther dehiscence, leading to male sterility in watermelon. Both overexpression of Cl-miR159a (OE-miR159…

The nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat protein (NLR) required for cell death (NRC) family represents a group of helper NLRs that are required by sensor NLRs to execute hypersensitive cell death during pathogen infection. NRCs contain an N-terminal coiled-coil (CC) domain essential for their function, yet our knowledge of how this domain contributes to NRC function remains limited. Using site-…

Haploid induction (HI) is the critical first step in doubled haploid (DH) technology and plays an essential role in engineering synthetic apomixis. The gene MATRILINEAL (MTL), also referred to as NOT LIKE DAD and PHOSPHOLIPASE A1, is an important gene responsible for HI. MTL encodes a pollen-specific phospholipase and was first reported in maize (Gilles et al., 2017; Kelliher et al., 2017; Liu et…

Floral longevity is thought to evolve by natural selection imposed by pollinators and resource constraints acting on heritable phenotypic variation. In species with pollination-induced wilting, pollination rates may also influence expression of variation, raising questions of how and when floral longevity is shaped by adaptation. We created an experimental range of pollen deposition rates in a wi…

Secondary contact between incipient species provides the opportunity to understand how trait divergence restricts gene flow. While mating system transitions are particularly common and involve a suite of phenotypic changes, the extent to which these changes influence gene flow during speciation is poorly understood. Using 410 genomes, we quantified introgression between selfing-outcrossing sister…

Carotenoids and apocarotenoids are widespread specialized metabolites, yet animals, including sponges, lack the ability to synthesize carotenoids de novo and must obtain them from dietary or microbial sources. The roles of carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases (CCDs) in marine animals remain largely unexplored. A CCD from the marine sponge Suberites domuncula (SdCDO) was evaluated for retinoid formati…

Plant immune responses comprise two phases, pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Sensing of the pathogen effector by a nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) induces robust and sustained immune responses, resulting in hypersensitive response (HR) cell death. During HR, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst is achieved through Nicotiana benthamia…

Photorespiration is traditionally viewed as a limitation to photosynthetic efficiency. However, it is mandatory for safeguarding the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle from inhibitory byproducts through Rubisco-mediated oxidative misfire and is tightly integrated with primary metabolism. Whether photorespiratory metabolism directly regulates guard cell function and stomatal behavior remains a matter of …

Alien trees reshape belowground fungal communities, but the factors governing the balance between mutualists and pathogens remain unclear. We tested whether residence time, mycorrhizal type, and biogeographical origin shape this balance, and whether alien stands differ from native vegetation. We sampled soils beneath 73 alien tree species in 48 chateau parks and native stands. Using ITS2 metabarc…

This consistency across multiple indices demonstrates that evenness captures a meaningful and reliable aspect of community structure, supporting its usefulness as an ecological concept. Recently, there has been a debate on the usefulness of evenness as a concept in ecology, and it has been argued by Alroy (2025) that evenness is only an abstract concept, which is not reflecting a useful community…

Roots are responsible for soil water uptake, yet little is known about how variation in fine-root traits relates to whole-tree water movement, particularly during periods of drought. By combining a 3-yr dataset monitoring sap flow rates with measures of fine-root biomass, length, and morphology across 10 tree species, we addressed hypotheses concerning the role of fine-root system size and morpho…

High temperature is a major environmental constraint that severely limits rice (Oryza sativa) growth, yield potential, and geographical adaptability. The molecular mechanisms underlying rice adaptation to warm climates remain poorly understood. By integrating population genomic data with multi-scale phenotyping, we show that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP-1456) in the promoter of the defen…

Understanding the drivers of plant phenotypic variation is central to crop improvement. Root-associated microbiota are increasingly recognized as important drivers of plant growth and disease resistance, yet their quantitative contribution to phenotypic variation remains unclear. Here, we extend the classical genotype–environment framework by explicitly incorporating soil microbiota as a distinct…

Phytochromes (PHYs) are a major group of photoreceptors, described as red and far-red light sensors in land plants. Recent genomic and metagenomic explorations have revealed the presence of PHYs also in various eukaryotic microalgae originating from distinct endosymbiotic events. Growing evidence indicates that these PHYs are spectrally and functionally tuned to shorter wavelengths, which are pre…