Following a season of diligent cultivation, the rice plants are ready for harvest. However, some rice plants have not headed yet and so are left unharvested in the fields. This delay is caused by infection with rice stripe mosaic virus, a newly emerged rice virus in southern China. Chen et al. (pages 2000-2016) demonstrated that the virus-encoded protein P6 hijacks the rice heading-related E3 ubiquitin ligase HAF1, leading to delayed heading. The infected plants that are left unharvested offer a conducive environment for the virus and its carrier, the leafhopper Recilia dorsalis, to overwinter.

Brief Communications

In vivohaploid induction in cauliflower, kale, and broccoli

Guixiang Wang, Mei Zong, Shuo Han, Hong Zhao, Mengmeng Duan, Xin Liu, Ning Guo, Fan Liu

Modifying the centromeric histoneCENH3orPHOSPHOLIPASEDgenes in cauliflower (Brassica oleraceavar. botrytis) created haploid induction lines, which can be widely used for in vivo haploid induction in cauliflower, kale, and broccoli, thus enabling rapid utilization of germplasm resources and improving breeding efficiency.

D53 represses rice blast resistance by directly targeting phenylalanine ammonia lyases

Haitao Ye, Qingqing Hou, Haitao Lv, Hui Shi, Duo Wang, Yujie Chen, Tangshuai Xu, Mei Wang, Min He, Junjie Yin, Xiang Lu, Yongyan Tang, Xiaobo Zhu, Lijuan Zou, Xuewei Chen, Jiayang Li, Bing Wang, Jing Wang

In rice, DWARF 53 directly binds to the promoters of seven phenylalanine ammonia lyase genes,OsPAL1˜OsPAL7, and represses their expression, leading to decreased lignin accumulation and compromised resistance againstMagnaporthe oryzae.

Review Article

Ripening and rot: How ripening processes influence disease susceptibility in fleshy fruits

Shan Li, Yu Zhao, Pan Wu, Donald Grierson, Lei Gao

This review summarizes the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying the interplay between fruit ripening and susceptibility/resistance to microbial pathogens and considers strategies for improving fruit quality, with tomato as a model for fleshy fruit-pathogen interactions, and relevant information from many other plant species.

New Technology

PE6c greatly enhances prime editing in transgenic rice plants

Zhenghong Cao, Wei Sun, Dexin Qiao, Junya Wang, Siyun Li, Xiaohan Liu, Cuiping Xin, Yu Lu, Syeda Leeda Gul, Xue-Chen Wang, Qi-Jun Chen

In rice, the prime editor PE6c, with an evolved and engineered reverse transcriptase variant from the yeast Tf1 retrotransposon, yielded the highest editing efficiency. Moreover, using two reverse transcriptase modules improved prime-editing efficiency.

Abiotic Stress Responses

HalotolerantBacillussp. strain RA coordinatesmyo-inositol metabolism to confer salt tolerance to tomato

Fenghui Wu, Zengting Chen, Xiaotong Xu, Xin Xue, Yanling Zhang, Na Sui

The halotolerantBacillussp. strain RA tolerates saline environments by reprogramming its biosynthetic pathways and mitigate salt stress in tomato by affecting phyllosphere microorganisms throughmyo-inositol.

Cell and Developmental Biology

Light-stabilized GIL1 suppresses PIN3 activity to inhibit hypocotyl gravitropism

Xiaolian Wang, Yanfang Yuan, Laurence Charrier, Zhaoguo Deng, Markus Geisler, Xing Wang Deng, Haodong Chen

Light-stabilized GRAVITROPIC IN THE LIGHT 1 inhibits the negative gravitropism of hypocotyls by suppressing the activity of the auxin transporter PIN-FORMED 3, thereby enhancing the emergence of young seedlings from the soil.

Sphingolipid inhibitor response gene GhMYB86 controls fiber elongation by regulating microtubule arrangement

Fan Xu, Guiming Li, Shengyang He, Zhifeng Zeng, Qiaoling Wang, Hongju Zhang, Xingying Yan, Yulin Hu, Huidan Tian, Ming Luo

Membrane sphingolipids affect cell elongation by influencing microtubule arrangement, and membrane lipids and the cytoskeleton interact in morphogenesis of the polar, elongated cotton fiber.

Green light mediates atypical photomorphogenesis by dual modulation ofArabidopsisphytochromes B and A

Miqi Xu, Yi-Yuan Wang, Yujie Wu, Xiuhong Zhou, Ziyan Shan, Kunying Tao, Kaiqiang Qian, Xuncheng Wang, Jian Li, Qingqing Wu, Xing Wang Deng, Jun-Jie Ling

Green light regulates atypical photomorphogenesis inArabidopsis thalianavia the dual regulations of phytochromes B and A. Although green light activates phyB and phyA, green light retards protein body formation of phyB in the nucleus and decreases the protein levels of phyA.

BBX9 forms feedback loops with PIFs and BBX21 to promote photomorphogenic development

Zhaoqing Song, Wanying Ye, Qing Jiang, Huan Lin, Qing Hu, Yuntao Xiao, Yeting Bian, Fengyue Zhao, Jie Dong, Dongqing Xu

The red-light photoreceptor phytochrome B interacts with and stabilizes the B-box protein BBX9 in the light. BBX9 forms a negative feedback loop with PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTORS (PIFs) and a positive feedback loop with BBX21, ultimately suppressing PIF activity and enhancing BBX21 activity, thus promoting photomorphogenesis.

Molecular Physiology

The TaGW2-TaSPL14 module regulates the trade-off between tiller number and grain weight in wheat

Chao Jian, Yuxue Pan, Shujuan Liu, Mengjiao Guo, Yilin Huang, Lina Cao, Weijun Zhang, Liuling Yan, Xueyong Zhang, Jian Hou, Chenyang Hao, Tian Li

In wheat (Triticum aestivum) GRAIN WIDTH 2 (TaGW2) interacts with SQUAMOSA PROMOTER-BINDING-LIKE 14 (TaSPL14) and mediates its ubiquitination and degradation, simultaneously regulating wheat tillering and grain weight; their combinational haplotypes have additive effects on tiller number and grain weight in wheat breeding.

BTA2regulates tiller angle and the shoot gravity response through controlling auxin content and distribution in rice

Zhen Li, Junhua Ye, Qiaoling Yuan, Mengchen Zhang, Xingyu Wang, Jing Wang, Tianyi Wang, Hongge Qian, Xinghua Wei, Yaolong Yang, Lianguang Shang, Yue Feng

Rice (Oryza sativa) BIG TILLER ANGLE 2 (BTA2) controls tiller angle and the shoot gravity response by modulating auxin content and distribution. BTA2 interacts with AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 7 to regulate rice tiller angle through the gravity signaling pathway.

Mechanisms of vacuolar phosphate efflux supporting soybean root hair growth in response to phosphate deficiency

Zhong Shan, Yanli Chu, Guangfang Sun, Rui Chen, Jun Yan, Qiwei He, Yingna Liu, Bin Wang, Mingda Luan, Wenzhi Lan

Under Pi deficiency, the soybean low-Pi responsive transcription factor ROOT HAIR DEFECTIVE 6-LIKE2 transcriptionally upregulates two vacuolar Pi efflux transporter genes, leading to the remobilization of Pi stored in the vacuole to enable root hair growth.

Plant Biotic Interactions

Rice stripe mosaic virus hijacks rice heading-related gene to promote the overwintering of its insect vector

Siping Chen, Xinyi Zhong, Zhiyi Wang, Biao Chen, Xiuqin Huang, Sipei Xu, Xin Yang, Guohui Zhou, Tong Zhang

Rice stripe mosaic virus infection delays rice heading by manipulating the expression of a heading-related E3 ubiquitin ligase gene, creating a conducive environment for the overwintering of the insect vector (leafhoppers) and the viruses.

A NAC transcription factor MNAC3-centered regulatory network negatively modulates rice immunity against blast disease

Hui Wang, Yan Bi, Yuqing Yan, Xi Yuan, Yizhou Gao, Muhammad Noman, Dayong Li, Fengming Song

In rice, the protein phosphatase OsPP2C41 dephosphorylates the ONAC transcription factor MNAC3, facilitating its translocation from nucleus to cytoplasm and suppressing its transcriptional activity on downstream target genesOsINO80andOsJAZ10, which negatively regulate immunity, thus modulating rice immunity against blast disease.

A pair of nuclear factor Y transcription factors act as positive regulators in jasmonate signaling and disease resistance in Arabidopsis

Chuyu Lin, Chenghao Lan, Xiaoxiao Li, Wei Xie, Fucheng Lin, Yan Liang, Zeng Tao

A pair ofArabidopsisNUCLEAR FACTOR Y transcription factors act in jasmonate signaling and disease resistance by positively regulating transcription of jasmonate-responsive genes and negatively regulating the abundance of JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN proteins.

The actin motor protein OsMYA1 associates with OsExo70H1 and contributes to rice secretory defense by modulating OsSyp121 distribution

Yuan-Bao Li, Chengyu Liu, Ningning Shen, Shuai Zhu, Xianya Deng, Zixuan Liu, Li-Bo Han, Dingzhong Tang

In rice cells, the myosin protein OsMYA1 drives defense-related secretory vesicle transport in response to infection with the rice blast fungusMagnaporthe oryzae. OsMYA1 guides directional transport of the exocyst subunit OsExo70H1 and SYNTAXIN OF PLANTS 121 to the cell membrane and fungus-host interface to build plant defenses.