Organisms living at elevation are exposed to a constant state of hypoxia compared to those at low altitude. A recent study¹ has shown that flowering plants acclimatize to high altitude through natural variation in molecular oxygen (O₂) sensing, with high-altitude populations exhibiting increased O₂ sensitivity to balance physiological and metabolic outputs. This finding demonstrates convergent mechanisms for altitude adaptation across eukaryotic kingdoms despite differences in the hypoxia-signalling pathways of plants and animals.

The analysis of the 11-gigabase, hexaploid oat genome reveals a mosaic chromosome structure with complex rearrangements related to polyploidization. The high-quality oat reference genome will facilitate the molecular identification of health food traits and the implementation of genomics-based oat breeding.

Arabidopsis embryonic root development involves the formation of distinct cell types and tissues in a tightly regulated and thereby highly predictable spatio-temporal manner. A crosstalk between maternal and embryonic genes orchestrates division orientation and fate specification to control root development.

Methylation is a frequent modification of glycans and polysaccharides. This process relies on the transport of cytosolic S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) into the Golgi lumen. This work identifies Golgi-localized major facilitator superfamily transporter members as putative SAM transporters in plants and reveals their importance for polysaccharide methylation and maintenance of the properties of cell walls.

Organisms living at elevation are exposed to a constant state of hypoxia compared to those at low altitude. A recent study¹ has shown that flowering plants acclimatize to high altitude through natural variation in molecular oxygen (O₂) sensing, with high-altitude populations exhibiting increased O₂ sensitivity to balance physiological and metabolic outputs. This finding demonstrates convergent mechanisms for altitude adaptation across eukaryotic kingdoms despite differences in the hypoxia-signalling pathways of plants and animals.

Over the last few months a new article type has appeared in our table of contents; the Research Briefing. What are they and why have we started to publish them?

Rubisco in seagrasses converged on lower catalytic efficiencies and CO₂/O₂ affinities than in their terrestrial and freshwater relatives, as a result of correlative adaptation between Rubisco and the effectiveness of their CO₂-concentrating mechanisms.

Arabidopsis embryonic root development involves the formation of distinct cell types and tissues in a tightly regulated and thereby highly predictable spatio-temporal manner. A crosstalk between maternal and embryonic genes orchestrates division orientation and fate specification to control root development.

An embryo-maternal communication orchestrates cell division orientation and cell fate specification during embryonic root development. This signalling is mediated by the WIP gene family members expressed embryonically and maternally.