ASPB Plant Science Research Articles of the Week – April 11, 2024

Plant Physiology Article of the Week: Regulatory Networks in Plant Responses to Drought and Cold Stress The spotlight is on June-Sik Kim, Satoshi Kidokoro, Kazuko Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, and Kazuo Shinozaki. They provide insight into the adaptive strategies of plants to aid in the engineering of stress-resilient crop varieties that can withstand a changing climate.

The Plant Cell Article of the Week: Degradation of FATTY ACID EXPORT PROTEIN1 by RHOMBOID-LIKE PROTEASE11 Contributes to Cold Tolerance in Arabidopsis The spotlight is on Annalisa John, Moritz Krämer, Martin Lehmann, Hans-Henning Kunz, Fayezeh Aarabi, Saleh Alseekh, Alisdair Fernie, Frederik Sommer, Michael Schroda, David Zimmer, Timo Mühlhaus, Helga Peisker, Katharina Gutbrod, Peter Dörmann, Jens Neunzig, Katrin Philippar, and Horst Ekkehard Neuhaus. Their study shows that the cold-induced degradation of FAX1 by RBL11 is critical for Arabidop­sis to survive cold and freezing periods.

Plant Direct Article of the Week: Cultivated Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) has Lower Tolerance of Moderate Drought Stress Than Its Con-specific Wild Relative, But the Underlying Traits Remain Elusive Cultivated crops are generally expected to have less abiotic stress tolerance than their wild relatives. However, this assumption is not well supported by empirical literature and may depend on the type of stress and how it is imposed, as well as the measure of tolerance being used. In this study investigated whether wild and cultivated accessions of Helianthus annuus differed in stress tolerance assessed as proportional decline in biomass due to drought and whether wild and cultivated accessions differed in trait responses to drought and trait associations with tolerance.