As the global population grows, producing enough food for everyone has become one of the biggest challenges in agriculture. Wheat, one of the world’s most important crops, must yield more grain from each plant to help meet this demand. A key factor in determining yield is the inflorescence architecture, the way that the plant’s flower head (or spike) is strucrured. This architecture controls how many grains each spike can produce and finally influence the yield of crops. Over the history of wheat breeding, changes in spike shape and structure have played a major role in yield improvements. In a recent study, researchers at Shandong Agricultural University explored a new way to boost wheat yield by re-engineering spike architecture. Through detailed multi-dimentional comparisons of inflorescence development among different cereal crops, the researchers identified promising directions for redesigning wheat spikes to produce more grains, which opens up an exciting path roward breaking burrent yield limits and helping secure global food supplies for the future.

Although several transgene-free gene editing methods exist, most are technically demanding or time-consuming. Li’s approach offers an efficient and practical alternative. Li’s lab and collaborators have further refined this method to achieve higher efficiency using citrus plants as a model system. These latest findings were published in Horticulture Research, a leading scientific journal in plant science.

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is among the world’s most destructive plant viruses, threatening global tomato yield and quality. Through fine mapping and genetic validation, researchers identified a co-chaperone gene, Sldnaj, carrying a 61-base-pair promoter deletion that causes tomato susceptibility to TSWV. Functional assays revealed that plants with this deletion exhibited enhanced virus accumulation and weakened defense responses, whereas knockout or silencing of Sldnaj significantly improved resistance. The study highlights Sldnaj as a critical susceptibility gene affecting the salicylic acid/jasmonic acid signaling pathways, offering new insight into molecular mechanisms of disease regulation and valuable guidance for developing resistant tomato cultivars.

Citrus fruit flavor depends largely on citric acid, the main organic acid determining its sourness and market appeal. Researchers have now identified CsAIL6, an AP2/ERF transcription factor that directly suppresses citric acid accumulation in citrus fruits. Overexpressing CsAIL6 in citrus or tomato significantly lowered fruit acidity, whereas silencing it led to higher citric acid levels. The study further revealed that CsAIL6 physically interacts with the WD40 protein CsAN11, a component of the MBW regulatory complex responsible for vacuolar acidification. This discovery unveils a new molecular mechanism controlling citrus acidity and provides a promising target for breeding and biotechnological strategies to enhance fruit flavor and quality.