Plant Biology

The influence of heavy metal stress on the evolutionary transition of teosinte to maize

1. Jonathan Acosta-Bayona
2. Miguel Vallebueno-Estrada
3. Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study investigates whether heavy metal stress can induce maize-like phenotypic and molecular responses in teosinte and whether these responses overlap with genomic regions implicated in domestication. By combining copper and cadmium treatments with quantitative phenotyping, gene-expression analyses, and expanded assessments of nucleotide diversity across a key chromosome 5 interval, the authors provide an integrated view of how abiotic stress responses intersect with domestication-related traits. The significance of the findings is valuable, as the work offers meaningful insights for the subfield of maize evolution and stress biology by extending heavy-metal response analyses to teosinte and linking them to domestication-associated loci, although the evolutionary implications remain indirect. The strength of evidence is solid, with appropriately designed and quantitatively supported experiments that broadly support the claims, but do not yet establish a causal or historical role for heavy metal stress in domestication.

Reviewed by eLife

The parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris selectively loads trans -species miRNAs onto host Argonautes, but not self Argonautes

1. Ya-Chi Nien
2. Michael J. Axtell

Reviewed by PREreview

Open RGB Imaging Workflow for Morphological and Morphometric Analysis of Fruits using AI: A Case Study on Almonds

1. Mas-Gómez Jorge
2. Rubio Manuel
3. Dicenta Federico
4. Martínez-García Pedro José

Reviewed by GigaScience

Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases mediate Wall Teichoic Acid perception in Arabidopsis

1. L. Pierdzig
2. C. Seinsche
3. S. Kalla
4. S. Armiento
5. L.M. Schulz
6. J. Rismondo
7. A. Molinaro
8. C. De Castro
9. E.K. Petutschnig
10. V. Lipka

Reviewed by PREreview

Enhancer-driven random gene overexpression (ERGO): a method to study gene function in Chlamydomonas

1. Yuliia Lihanova
2. Rory J. Craig
3. Mia Pribbernow
4. Reimund Goss
5. Severin Sasso

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Dual recognition of structurally unrelated mildew effectors underlies the broad-spectrum resistance of Pm3e in wheat

1. Lukas Kunz
2. Zoe Bernasconi
3. Matthias Heuberger
4. Jonatan Isaksson
5. Alexandros G. Sotiropoulos
6. Ursin Stirnemann
7. Jigisha Jigisha
8. Fabrizio Menardo
9. Thomas Wicker
10. Marion C. Müller
11. Beat Keller

Reviewed by PREreview

Energy trade-offs under fluctuating light govern bioenergetics and growth in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

1. Ana Pfleger
2. Erwann Arc
3. Shuang Zhang
4. Palak Chaturvedi
5. Emma Antoine
6. Erich Gnaiger
7. Arindam Ghatak
8. Leila Afjehi-Sadat
9. Wolfram Weckwerth
10. Ilse Kranner
11. Thomas Roach

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Actin Counters Geometry to Guide Plant Cell Division

1. Camila Goldy
2. Samantha Moulin
3. Yutaro Shimizu
4. Guillaume Cerutti
5. Vincent Bayle
6. Magali Grison
7. Yvon Jaillais
8. David Bouchez
9. Yohann Boutté
10. Martine Pastuglia
11. Philippe Andrey
12. Marie-Cécile Caillaud

Reviewed by preLights

Catch & Release – rapid cost-effective protein purification from plants using a DIY GFP-Trap-protease approach

1. Sebastian Schwartz
2. Carina Engstler
3. Susanne Mühlbauer
4. Eduard Windenbach
5. Tobias Wunder
6. Hans-Henning Kunz
7. Benjamin Brandt

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Fifteenth century CE Bolivian maize reveals genetic affinities with ancient Peruvian maize

1. Huan Chen
2. Amy Baetsen-Young
3. Addie Thompson
4. Brad Day
5. Thelma Madzima
6. Sally Wasef
7. Claudia Rivera Casanovas
8. William Lovis
9. Gabriel Wrobel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study attempts to place an ancient maize sample from Bolivia, dated to the end of the Incan empire, in genetic and geographical context. The analyses show that this sample is most closely related to ancient Peruvian maize, but the data remain inadequate to determine the direction of dispersal and the extent of Inca influence over the genetic make up of the analyzed sample. There are additional deficiencies in the statistical analyses and selection inferences. The topic of the study would appeal to researchers studying maize dispersal and adaptation.

Reviewed by eLife