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 presents a valuable investigation into how heavy metal stress may have influenced the domestication of maize from its wild ancestor, teosinte parviglumis, focusing on specific ATPase genes with proposed roles in heavy metal homeostasis. The evidence supporting the main claims is incomplete, with suggestive but not definitive data linking gene function to domestication traits, and limited environmental context for the hypothesized selection pressures. While the work introduces an interesting model connecting environmental stress responses to evolutionary transitions and highlights underexplored aspects of teosinte plasticity, the conclusions would benefit from more comprehensive analyses such as transcriptomics, a broader survey of loci, and stronger paleoenvironmental validation. The study will be of interest to researchers in plant evolution and domestication, but currently lacks the analytical depth to fully support its central hypothesis.

Reviewed by eLife

Competence for transcellular infection in the root cortex involves a post-replicative, cell-cycle exit decision in Medicago truncatula

1. Morgane Batzenschlager
2. Beatrice Lace
3. Ning Zhang
4. Chao Su
5. Anna Boiger
6. Sabrina Egli
7. Pascal Krohn
8. Jule Salfeld
9. Franck Anicet Ditengou
10. Thomas Laux
11. Thomas Ott

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This is a fundamental cell biological study of host responses during symbiotic microbial infection of plants. Compelling imaging-based approaches using genetically encoded cell cycle markers show that in Medicago truncatula root cortex cells, early rhizobial infection events are associated with cell-cycle re-entry, but once the infection is established, host cells exit the cell cycle. The work will be of interest to a wide range of readers working in fields from development and cell biology to plant-microbe interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

Rpv2 is part of a cluster of NLRs specific to Vitis rotundifolia and confers extreme resistance to grapevine downy mildew

1. Laurie Marsan
2. Emilce Prado
3. Sabine Wiedemann-Merdinoglu
4. Laure Schmidlin
5. Sophie Blanc
6. Marion Delame
7. Sylvain Schnee
8. Burak Arti
9. Guillaume Barnabé
10. Amandine Velt
11. Vincent Dumas
12. Didier Merdinoglu
13. Camille Rustenholz
14. Pere Mestre

Reviewed by PREreview

A spontaneous mutation in a key C ₄ pathway gene significantly alters leaf δ ¹³ C, uncoupling its relationship with WUE and photosynthetic performance in Zea mays

1. Robert J. Twohey
2. Joseph D. Crawford
3. Matthew J. Runyon
4. Jiayang Xie
5. Andrew D. B. Leakey
6. Asaph B. Cousins
7. Anthony J. Studer

Reviewed by PREreview

A simple method to efficiently generate structural variation in plants

1. Lindsey L. Bechen
2. Naiyara Ahsan
3. Alefiyah Bahrainwala
4. Mary Gehring
5. PRV Satyaki

Reviewed by Review Commons, PREreview

Transcriptional Dynamics and Chromatin Accessibility in the Regulation of Shade-Responsive Genes in Arabidopsis

1. Sandi Paulisic
2. Alessandra Boccaccini
3. René Dreos
4. Giovanna Ambrosini
5. Nicolas Guex
6. Ruben Maximilian Benstei
7. Markus Schmid
8. Christian Fankhauser

Reviewed by Review Commons

Making plant tissue accessible for cryo-electron tomography

1. Matthias Pöge
2. Marcel Dickmanns
3. Peng Xu
4. Meijing Li
5. Oda H Schiøtz
6. Christoph OJ Kaiser
7. Jianfei Ma
8. Anna Bieber
9. Cristina Capitanio
10. Johann Brenner
11. Margot Riggi
12. Sven Klumpe
13. Manuel Miras
14. Neda S Kazemein Jasemi
15. Waltraud X Schulze
16. Rüdiger Simon
17. Wolf B Frommer
18. Jürgen M Plitzko
19. Wolfgang Baumeister

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Thick multicellular plant samples provide unique challenges when it comes to cryo-preservation, which has resulted in limited successful examples for structural studies using in situ cryo-electron tomography. To address this deficiency, this important study describes procedures for high-pressure-freezing, focused ion-beam milling, and cryo-electron tomography imaging of certain plant types. The results described in the paper provide solid evidence for the usefulness of the methods described, although some reservations remain about the applicability of the methods to a wider range of plant cell types.

Reviewed by eLife

The MpCAFA gene encodes a ciliary protein required for spermatozoid motility in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha

1. Mizuki Morita
2. Katsuyuki T. Yamato

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Targeted and random mutagenesis of cassava brown streak disease susceptibility factors reveal molecular determinants of disease severity

1. ZJ Daniel Lin
2. Myia K Stanton
3. Gabriela L Hernandez
4. Elizabeth J De Meyer
5. Zachary von Behren
6. Katherine Benza
7. Helene Tiley
8. Emerald Hood
9. Greg Jensen
10. Kerrigan B Gilbert
11. James C Carrington
12. Rebecca S Bart

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study shows that mutations in specific cassava genes can reduce infection by cassava brown streak viruses. The authors also identify a key amino acid change that may be significant in how the virus interacts with the plant, but its role is not yet confirmed. While the findings are promising for developing resistant cassava varieties, in the absence of testing a quadruple mutant and without more data on the critical importance of amino acid L5 in VPg-eIF4E interactions, the evidence for several of the major claims remains incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Root hair lifespan is antagonistically controlled by autophagy and programmed cell death

1. Qiangnan Feng
2. Shihao Zhu
3. Xinchao Wang
4. Yujie Liu
5. Jierui Zhao
6. Yasin Dagdas
7. Moritz K Nowack

Reviewed by PREreview