Hidden hunger, caused by chronic micronutrient deficiencies, affects billions of people worldwide and remains a critical public health issue despite progress in food production. Biofortification offers a promising solution by enhancing nutrient levels within plant tissues through traditional breeding or advanced biotechnologies. Recent advancements in plant synthetic biology have significantly improved biofortification strategies, enabling precise and targeted nutrient enrichment. This mini-review outlines five core strategies in synthetic biology-based biofortification: overexpression of endogenous biosynthetic genes, introduction of heterologous biosynthetic pathways, expression of nutrient-specific transporters, optimization of transcriptional regulation, and protein (directed) evolution. Vitamin B₁ biofortification serves as a primary illustrative example due to its historical importance and ongoing relevance. Recent breakthroughs, particularly from Chinese research teams, are also highlighted. Together, these strategies offer transformative potential for addressing global nutritional challenges through precise, sustainable and innovative plant-based approaches.

Transcription factors (TFs) function as master regulators in multiple signaling pathways and govern diverse developmental and adaptive processes in plants. Some TFs identified in crop plants play critical roles in regulating yield through changes in plant architecture, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and grains. Although altering crop architecture can increase yields, the extent of yield enhancement is frequently hampered by diseases. Developing new crop varieties with improved yields and enhanced disease resistance remains challenging because immune system activation often impairs plant growth. Recently, approaches using TF engineering have made substantial progress in elevating both growth performance and disease resistance. However, most of these techniques rely on traditional transgenic methods. This review highlights discoveries in the last decade demonstrating improvements in growth performance, yield and immunity through TF engineering. We focus mainly on changes in plant architecture related to improved yield and disease resistance. We conclude with perspectives on the potential application of these discoveries for generating desirable crop traits by merging the most noteworthy biotechnology approaches, such as clustered regularly interspaced small palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9-mediated genome editing, with canonical molecular biology.

In recent decades, research on model organisms has significantly increased our understanding of core biological processes in plant science. However, this focus has created a substantial knowledge bottleneck due to the limited phylogenetic and ecological spectrum covered. Gymnosperms, especially conifers, represent a molecular and ecological diversity hotspot among seed plants. Despite their importance, research on these species is notably underrepresented, primarily due to a slower pace of investigation resulting from a lack of community-based resources and databases. To fill this gap, we developed the P(inus)ra(diata)-G(ene)E(xpression) (Pra-GE)-ATLAS, which consists of several tools and two main modules: transcriptomics and proteomics, presented in this work for the forestry commercial and stress-sensitive species Pinus radiata. We have summarized and centralized all the available information to provide a comprehensive view of the gene expression landscape. To illustrate how applications of the database lead to new biological insights, we have integrated multiple regulatory layers across tissues and stressors. While stress favors the retention of small introns, harmonized alternative splicing analyses reveal that genes with conifers' iconic large introns tend to be under constitutive regulation. Furthermore, the degree of convergence between stressors differed between regulatory layers, with proteomic responses remaining highly distinctive even through intergenerational memory tolerance. Overall, the Pra-GE-ATLAS aims to narrow the distance between angiosperms and gymnosperms resources, deepening our understanding of how characteristic pine features have evolved. Pra-GE-ATLAS DB is available at: http://pra-ge-atlas.valmei.es.

The SDS-sedimentation volume (SSV) is a critical indicator for assessing wheat gluten quality and is widely used when evaluating wheat processing quality. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating SSV remain poorly understood. In this study, we performed an analysis of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for SSV using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between TAA10 and XX329, and identified four environmentally stable QTLs located on chromosomes 1D, 2D, 4D, and 6D. Among them, the effects of Qssv.cau-1D and Qssv.cau-6D were likely to be explained by genome variations at the Glu-D1 and Gli-D2 loci. We fine mapped Qssv.cau-2D to the candidate causal gene TaSED, encoding a nucleolar protein. Gene-edited TaSED knockout mutants (tased) had a lower SSV, while TaSED overexpression lines showed a higher SSV. We demonstrated that TaSED interacted with the transcription factor TaSPA to enhance its transcriptional activation activity of glutenin and gliadin, whose expression was downregulated in tased and upregulated in TaSED-OE plants, with corresponding differences in glutenin and gliadin content compared with the wild-type. A molecular marker sedTX was further developed based on a nonsynonymous mutation of the parents in TaSED that could be used to identify haplotypes with high SSV effectively. Our findings elucidate a molecular mechanism governing SSV and reveal valuable variants with promising applications for improving wheat quality.

Late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans secretes numerous effectors to suppress plant immunity. However, little is known about their underlying biochemical mechanisms. Here we report that, in the host Nicotiana benthamiana, P. infestans core RXLR effector Pi17063 suppresses plant immunity by targeting the host plasma membrane and NbRab-G3 proteins, small GTPases of the Ras-related brain (Rab) family. Pi17063 functions as their specific GTPase-activating protein (GAP), driving them to the cytoplasm-localized guanosine diphosphate (GDP)-bound inactive state. Mutant analysis of the conserved Pi17063 arginine residues showed the essential role of its GAP activity for virulence contribution. All four NbRab-G3 subfamily members are positive immune regulators, and NbRab-G3c mutants lost the ability to switch between active and inactive states and showed compromised immune function. Consistent with this, both silencing and overexpression of an endogenous GAP, NbGYP, inhibited NbRab-G3c-mediated plant immunity. Our results revealed positive immune roles of host NbRab-G3 GTPases, the importance of their state balance, and the biochemical mechanism by which their functions are suppressed by a P. infestans effector, providing insights into understanding eukaryotic effector-mediated plant susceptibility.

Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) mimic eukaryotic transcriptional activators and translocate into host plant cells via the bacterial type III secretion system (T3SS) during pathogenic interactions. They play a crucial role in disease development by regulating host genes. Despite this, the regulatory mechanisms by which TALEs control OsWRKY transcription factors (TFs) remain poorly understood. In this study, we show that two TALEs from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) individually modulate two OsWRKY TFs, resulting in increased susceptibility and reduced host defense. Specifically, Xoo1219 and Xoo2145 activate the expression of OsWRKY104 and OsWRKY55, respectively, through direct interactions. OsWRKY104 increases the susceptibility to Xoo by activating OsSWEET11 and OsSWEET14, while OsWRKY55 suppresses host defense against Xoo by directly regulating OsWRKY62. These findings suggest that TALEs hijack the host's OsWRKY TFs to create a favorable environment for bacterial survival.

Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P₂) is known to be an instrumental anionic phospholipid in governing pollen germination and pollen tube growth. However, the precise functions and regulatory mechanisms of PI(4,5)P₂ in pollen polarity establishment and germination remain poorly understood. Our previous studies demonstrated the pivotal involvement of Arabidopsis formin homology 5 (AtFH5)-dependent vesicle trafficking in polarity establishment of pollen. Here, we observed that PI(4,5)P₂ accumulated and oscillated at the prospective germination site, a process closely associated with the rotational movement of AtFH5-labeled vesicles. Disruption of the mobility of AtFH5-labeled vesicles, either through AtFH5 mutation or pharmacological treatment, significantly perturbed the accumulation of PI(4,5)P₂ at the plasma membrane. Subcellular localization and genetic analysis revealed that two phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate 5-kinases, AtPIP5K1 and AtPIP5K4, are essential for PI(4,5)P₂ oscillation at the germination site prior to pollen germination. Furthermore, we found that the dynamics of AtPIP5K4 depended on the mobility of AtFH5-labeled vesicles and reduced PI(4,5)P₂ in turn disturbed the attachment of AtFH5-labeled secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane. In conclusion, these findings collectively highlight the reciprocal regulation of AtFH5-labeled secretory vesicles and PI(4,5)P₂ oscillations at the plasma membrane, providing critical insights into the molecular mechanism underlying polarity establishment during pollen germination.