In 2023, the numbers of original research articles published by Chinese plant scientists in mainstream plant science journals increased significantly improved compared with that in 2022, and important advances have been made in the fields of regulation of intraspecific and interspecific reproductive isolation in Brassicaceae by stigma receptors, supercomplex structure of chloroplast TOC-TIC, mechanisms of crop yield, disease resistance, stress tolerance, the origin and spread of grapes and citrus plants, and the evolution of modern maize, millet and potato germplasm resources. Among them, “Crop Salt and Alkali Tolerance Mechanisms and Applications”, and “A New Method for Precise Manipulation of Single Base to Large Fragment DNA” in 2023 were selected as two of the “Top Ten Advances in Plant Sciences in China”; “The Molecular Mechanism of Mentor Pollen Effect in Plant Distant Hybridization” was selected as one of the “Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences in China” in 2023. Here we summarize the achievements of plant science research in China in 2023, by briefly introducing 30 representative important research advances and sorting out the experimental materials used in plant science research, so as to help readers understand the trend of plant science development in China, and evaluate future research direction to meet major national strategic needs.

Xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolases (XTH) belongs to glycoside hydrolase, family 16 (GH16) and it is a class of enzymes that mediate the construction and recombination of xyglucan-cellulose skeleton. To explore the potential biological functions of XTH family genes in Antirrhinum majus. In this paper, bioinformatics analysis, RNA-seq analysis and qRT-PCR were used to investigate the expression levels of the family genes in the petalized and non-petalized stamens and disease-resistant materials. The results showed that the main conserved motif from 33 identified AmXTH proteins was ExDxE, which could be divided into 3 subgroups. Most of the cis-acting elements of AmXTH promoter are growth and development, disease resistance and stress resistance. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR revalidation finally unearthed four positive candidate genes (AmXTH3, 14, 18, and 33) and one candidate genes (AmXTH23) for nagatively mediated Sclerotinia sclerotiorum resistance. There were 12 positive AmXTH candidate genes (AmXTH1, 7, 9, 11, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29 and 33) and 2 negative AmXTH candidate genes (AmXTH15 and 31). Among them, AmXTH23 and 33 may play a role in both of the A. majus resistant to S. sclerotiorum and stamen petalization. In this study, the candidate AmXTH genes involved in S. sclerotiorum resistance and stamen petalization of A. majus were preliminarily excavated, which laid a foundation for further revealing the gene function.

As an essential enzyme in plant secondary metabolism, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) plays a key role in regulating plant growth and development, as well as biological/abiotic stress resistance. Agropyron mongolicum is a traditional forage grass widely distributed in the desert grassland areas of northern China, which exhibited high tolerance to drought and cold stresses. To explore the role of cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase in A. mongolicum, in this study, a CAD gene was identified from the full-length transcriptome data of A. mongolicum and subsequentially analyzed in vitro. The 1 083 bp coding sequence of AmCAD encodes 361 amino acids, which has typical conserved CAD region containing two Zn²⁺ binding motifs and NADP(H) cofactor binding motifs, belongs to the typical CAD protein, and its three-dimensional structure is similar to AtCAD5. AmCAD is highly expressed in the stem. The AmCAD recombinant protein showed a robust catalytic ability to different cinnamaldehyde substrates, with the highest substrate affinity of coniferyl aldehyde and sinapaldehyde. Under drought stress condition, the expression level of AmCAD was significantly induced, indicating a potential function of this gene in stress tolerance. The experimental results indicate that AmCAD may play an important role in lignin biosynthesis and drought stress tolerance in A. mongolicum. Our research provided potentially valuable genetic resources for molecular breeding of A. mongolicum to improve biomass quality and stress resistance.

Rice panicle traits have a distinct effect on yield, and the exploration and research of related genes play a crucial role in ensuring national food security. In this study, we used the indica rice HZ, the japonica rice Nekken2 and 120 recombinant inbred lines population constructed from them as experimental materials to measure panicle length, grain number per panicle, seed-setting rate, stigma exsertion rate, number of primary branches and other panicle traits. We combined the high-density genetic map for QTL mapping, a total of 31 QTLs were detected on chromosome 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 11, among which 2 LOD values were as high as 5.45 and 5.28. By analyzing the candidate genes in the QTL interval, the related genes that may affect the panicle traits were screened out, and qRT-PCR was used for gene expression analysis, which revealed that the expression levels of LOC_Os05g05490, LOC_Os05g06150, LOC_Os03g11700, LOC_Os03g12430, LOC_Os05g28720, LOC_Os05g30890, LOC_Os05g31740 and LOC_Os02g17880 were significantly different between the parents. Among these genes, the first five genes encode tripartite pentapeptide repeat proteins, while the latter three genes encode glycosyltransferases. This study identified 31 QTLs related to panicle traits, laying a theoretical basis for further localization and cloning of related genes and breeding new high-yield rice varieties.

Squamosa promoter binding protein (SBP) gene family is widely involved in plant growth and development, signal transduction, and many physiological and biochemical processes. Here, we identified a total of 25 SBP genes in the proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) genome, which were divided into 6 subfamilies through phylogenetic analysis. The members of the same subfamily had similar gene structure and conserved motifs. The collinearity analysis revealed 7 pairs of orthologous genes with Arabidopsis thaliana AtSBP and 31 pairs with Oryza sativa OsSBP. The analysis of cis-acting elements showed that the promoter region of SBP genes in P. miliaceum was rich in elements related to stress, plant light response and plant hormone signal response. The analysis of gene expression patterns showed that the SBP genes in P. miliaceum had obvious tissue specificity, variety specificity, and developmental stage specificity, suggesting important roles of SBP genes in the growth and development of P. miliaceum. The results provide a basis for further studying the biological function of SBP gene family in the growth and development of P. miliaceum and a reference for studying the SBP genes in other crops.

Chrysanthemum vestitum, a closely related hexaploid wild species of cultivated C. × morifolium has the same and typical flat, tubular and mixed floret forms in its natural population as cultivated chrysanthemum and is an ideal material for studying the petal variation in chrysanthemum. The development progress of this ray floret is affected by key differential genes such as auxin and floral organ development, but the lack of stable and efficient regeneration systems for different floret forms has restricted the study of petal type-related genes in C. vestitum. In this paper, the authors used three floret forms of C. vestitum collected from Funiu Mountain in Henan Province to establish regeneration systems using leaves and transverse thin cell layers (tTCLs) as explants. The results showed that the optimal media for callus induction and adventitious bud differentiation were MS+1 mg∙L^-1 NAA+2 mg∙L^-1 6-BA with flat floret leaves as explants, and the callus induction rate was 100% at 20 days after inoculation. The differentiation rate of adventitious buds was 100%. The optimal rooting medium was 1/2MS+0.2 mg∙L^-1 NAA, and the rooting rate of regenerated plants was 100%. The optimal leaf regeneration system for the flat floret strain was also suitable for determining both the tubular and mixed floret strains. The differentiation rates of adventitious buds were 83.46% and 91.67%, respectively, and the rooting rates were 100%. The flowering plants were observed after transplanting, and it was found that the flower types of the regenerated plants with three different floret forms obtained by the leaf regeneration system were stable, which provided a technical method for the subsequent analysis of the morphological variation mechanism of ray florets by using different floret forms of C. vestitum.

Double flower is characterized by the increase in the number of petals, the folding of petal or the increase in area of petal, which usually has higher ornamental and economic value. Focusing on the increased number of petal and petal-like organ in double flower, we summarized and discussed the molecular mechanism of the formation of double flower in some model plants and ornamental plants, including the key transcription factors and the epigenetic modifications such as miRNAs, DNA methylation, histone modification and chromatin remodeling involved in the regulation of petal number. And based on this, we discussed the developing trend of the future research.

The mechanism of sex determination in dioecious plants is a hot topic in reproductive biology, evolution and ecology, and so on. During recent years, the sex determination genes of several important crops, such as asparagus, kiwifruit, and poplar, have been revealed and applied to produce sex-specific products. New germplasms with bisexual flowers have also been developed for molecular breeding. In this review, the genetic bases of sex determination were systematically analyzed from the aspects of sex chromosomes and sex-determination genes in dioecious plants. Subsequently, the epigenetic regulatory roles of non-coding RNA and DNA methylation in plant sex determination were discussed. Finally, it was suggested that further comparative studies of sex determination genes among different dioecious plants should be carried out. More efforts are also needed to pay on the epigenetic regulations of plant sex determination. This work will not only facilitate to understand the molecular mechanisms of sex determination in dioecious plants, but also help to expand the application values of sex determination studies.

Ethylene plays a pivotal role in regulating the growth, development and stress responses of rice (Oryza sativa). The first step of ethylene biosynthesis is the conversion of methionine to SAM, followed by the synthesis of the ethy- lene precursor ACC under the catalysis of ACC synthase, which is ultimately converted to ethylene by ACC oxidase. In this review, we provide an overview of the latest research progress, especially focusing on the transcriptional and posttranslational regulatory mechanisms of two key enzymes involved in the rice ethylene biosynthesis pathway, OsACS and OsACO. Finally, we present several unsolved questions and insights into future research directions to enhance our understanding of the complex mechanism of ethylene biosynthesis.

With the rapid development of sequencing technology and bioinformatic analysis tools, the studies of plant genomes has been growing in an unprecedent speed. The family Lauraceae belongs to Magnoliids and is mainly found in pantropics with high species diversity. Species of this family are mostly woody and economically and ecologically important. Up to now, 13 genomes belonging to 8 species in the family Lauraceae have been published. Here, we review the recent advances on the published nuclear genomes of Lauraceae by focusing on their characteristics, evolution and phylogeny, and the functional genes and gene families. We highlight the recent achievements in the whole genome duplication events, and the genes/gene families related to the floral organ determination and metabolites in Lauraceae. Finally, we suggest further studies should be performed to improve our understanding of the function and evolution of this family by sequencing more species as well as more representative samples in all major clades, especially by tackling species with special value, and studying the species-specific functional genes.

Colorful woody plants have bright foliage, high ornamental value, and are valuable to the garden landscape. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the configuration of colored woody plants in landscape design. The most direct cause of leaf color change is the alteration in pigment content and ratio in the leaves. Leaf color variation is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Leaf color can be regulated through controlling light, temperature and other factors. With the development of molecular biology, several key genes for regulating leaf color variation have been discovered in woody plants. Here, we summarize the progress of researches related to leaf color variation in woody plants, including studies on environmental factors, leaf microstructure, and molecular mechanism of leaf color variation and related genes, so as to provide a theoretical basis for further improving our understanding on the mechanism of leaf color variation in woody plants and cultivating additional ornamental colored woody trees.