Plant physiology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Our extensive, multi-year regional study reveals that prolonged exposure to heavy wildfire smoke results in significant and persistent reductions in non-structural carbohydrates in trees, and that these effects continue for months following the fires (including into the dormancy period and next season’s bloom). Furthermore, trees that are subjected to high levels of smoke exhibit substantial yield reductions in the following year.

Plants constantly adjust their gene expression and metabolism to thrive in diverse environments. In legume root nodules, the surprising role of zinc as an intracellular messenger links environmental changes to transcriptional control.

Leaf ecophysiological traits of crops are primarily inherited from their wild progenitors, challenging the conventional assumption that the origins of fast physiology lie only in early domestication and modern breeding.

To control the movement of water and nutrients, vascular plants seal the paracellular space between adjacent endodermal cells with a tight junction-like complex comprising the Casparian strip and Casparian strip membrane domain. In rice, GAPLESS proteins mediate the attachment of these two components and enable nutrient homeostasis.

A new study reveals that epigenetic mechanism mediates temperature control of callose synthase expression to regulate opening of plasmodesmata and facilitate bud sprouting in lilies.