Strigolactones, as signaling molecules and plant hormones, play essential roles in rhizosphere communication and plant growth and development. Strigolactones are structurally highly diversified, suggesting their biosynthesis is highly complex, with a range of different enzymes involved. Over the past decades, significant progress has been achieved in elucidating strigolactone biosynthesis in different plant species, which highlights particularly the importance of the cytochrome P450 family. Here, we give an overview of methodologies used for the discovery and functional characterization of the cytochrome P450s in strigolactone biosynthesis, classify and summarize these members discovered so far, review their biological importance, and discuss techniques in strigolactone biosynthesis research. Finally, we provide an outlook on some unsolved issues in strigolactone biology and discuss potential practical applications in agriculture.

The selective degradation of aberrant mRNAs plays a vital role in ensuring cellular survival under stress conditions. Here, we investigated the role of OsFKBP20-1b, a splicing factor, in dehydration stress response in rice (Oryza sativa). We show that OsFKBP20-1b associates with the core nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) components, UP-FRAMESHIFT1 (OsUPF1) and OsUPF2, enhances their stability, thereby supporting the efficient degradation of aberrant transcripts during dehydration stress. These associations were demonstrated using bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC), co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP), and in vitro binding assays. Integrative analyses combining ribosome profiling and transcriptome sequencing further revealed that OsFKBP20-1b influences both alternative splicing (AS) patterns and translational dynamics of stress-responsive transcripts. Notably, loss of OsFKBP20-1b compromises OsUPF1- and OsUPF2-mediated decay of aberrant mRNAs under dehydration conditions. Consistent with these molecular defects, osfkbp20-1b mutant plants exhibited heightened sensitivity to dehydration stress. Together, our findings identify OsFKBP20-1b as a key regulator linking pre-mRNA splicing with cytoplasmic RNA surveillance during dehydration stress, thereby providing mechanistic insight into post-transcriptional control of stress adaptation in rice. These results advance our understanding of RNA quality control pathways in plants and suggest potential molecular targets for improving drought-resilience in crops.

Seed dormancy (SD) is the primary genetic determinant of pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) resistance. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying SD remain incompletely understood. Here, we identified a wheat cytochrome P450 gene, TaCYP94-A1, that is expressed at significantly higher levels in weak-dormancy varieties than in strong-dormancy varieties. TaCYP94-A1 expression increased during SD release and decreased during dormancy establishment. Knockout of TaCYP94-A1 markedly enhanced SD and PHS resistance without adversely affecting yield-related traits. Two key single-nucleotide polymorphisms (T/C at –1,895 bp and T/C at –1,225 bp) in the TaCYP94-A1 promoter were significantly associated with SD variation, with the TaCYP94-A1^1,895C and TaCYP94-A1^1,225C allele combination (haplotype Hap4) strongly associated with enhanced dormancy. Two transcription factors, TaABI4 and TaNAC-A1, bind directly to the 5′-ACCGC-3′ (C, –1,895 bp) and 5′-GACTTC-3′ (C, –1,225 bp) motifs in the TaCYP94-A1 promoter, respectively, and regulate its transcription through antagonistic protein–protein interactions in the nucleus. Physiological, biochemical, and gene expression analyses revealed that the TaABI4/TaNAC-A1–TaCYP94-A1 module regulates SD through crosstalk with the gibberellic acid, abscisic acid, and jasmonic acid pathways. Together, these findings uncover a previously uncharacterized regulatory module controlling SD and provide valuable genetic resources and molecular markers for developing PHS-resistant wheat cultivars through molecular design breeding.