In the marginal regions of Europe, grassland-based livestock systems are dominated by grass monocultures receiving relatively high levels of fertilizer. Would the inclusion of clovers improve their productivity and sustainability? Helgadóttir et al. grew monocultures and mixtures of two grass and two clover species under different N-fertilizer levels in extreme growing conditions for five years. […]

More intense droughts under climate change threaten species resilience. Hydraulic strategies determine drought survival in woody species but are hardly explored in herbaceous species. Volaire et al. investigated the intraspecific variability of hydraulic and morphological traits as indicators of dehydration tolerance in a perennial grass, cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), which has a large biogeographical distribution in […]

In natural hybrid zones, traits often show clines, gradual variation across a gradient reflecting a balance between natural selection and gene flow. Changes over time in average values for traits, and especially the shapes of their clines, are rarely investigated in plants but could result from evolution in an unstable hybrid zone. Differences in clines […]

Turgor-driven plant cell growth depends on cell wall structure and mechanics. Strengthening of cell walls on the basis of an association and interaction with silicon (Si) could lead to improved nutrient uptake and optimized growth and metabolism in rice (Oryza sativa). However, the structural basis and physiological mechanisms of nutrient uptake and metabolism optimization under […]

Palm seeds are interesting models for studying seed reserve mobilization at the tissue level due to the abundance and complexity of reserves stored in their living endosperm cells and the development of a highly specialized haustorium. Dias et al. studied structural and physiological aspects of the initial phases of reserve mobilization in seeds of a […]

Flower opening in barley (Hordeum vulgare) is induced by the swelling of the lodicule, a trait under the suppressor protein CLY1 encoded by the cleistogamy1 (cly1). Anwar et al. show a small RNA miR172a was the most abundant among three miR172 isomers, and sequence polymorphism at the miR172a target site within cly1 was relevant to […]

The brassinosteroids hormones are involved in plant development and plant–environment interactions. In this work, Castorina et al. performed a detailed analysis of lilliputian1-1 (lil1-1), a mutant impaired in the last steps of the brassinosteroid pathway. Lack of brassinosteroid active molecules causes a drastic reduction in seedling elongation, affects root gravitropic curvature and alters cell density […]

Photosynthesis is the process that fuels a plant. It sets the energy budget for the organism. It’s no surprise it’s a well-studied process, tet the most commonly measured photosynthesis parameters are made at ‘steady state’ meaning that new photosynthetic traits could remain undiscovered. The ‘dynamic’ changes in photosynthesis (i.e. the kinetics of the various reactions […]

Clonal reproduction in polyploids is expected to exceed that in diploids, due to either the immediate direct effects of whole-genome duplication (WGD) or selection during establishment. The timing of polyploidy effects on clonality are largely unknown despite its hypothesized influence on polyploid success. Van Drunen and Husband tested the direction and timing of divergence in […]

Evolutionary change in developmental trajectories (heterochrony) is a major mechanism of adaptation in plants and animals. However, there are few detailed studies of the variation in the timing of developmental events among wild populations. João Costa e Silva and colleagues aimed to identify the climatic drivers and measure selection shaping a genetic-based developmental cline among […]

The greater diversity of plant clades in the Neotropics compared to their relatives in Africa is a pervasive pattern in biogeography. To better understand the causes of this imbalance, Alcantara and colleagues studied the diversification dynamics of the monocot family Velloziaceae. In addition to being conspicuously richer in the Neotropics compared to the Palaeotropics, many […]

If a plant wants to grow, it needs reliable anisotropic cell elongation*. Getting the cells to elongate has a couple of constraints. There is vacuolar turgor pressure, the pressure from the vacuole in the cell pushing the contents of the cell up against the cell wall. And there’s the cell wall, which needs to limit […]