Article describes how, since the discovery of the second chromosome in the Rhodobacter spaeroides 2.4.1 in 1989 and the revelation of gene sequences, multipartite genomes have been reported in over three hundred bacterial species under nine different phyla. In this study, the authors have attempted to leverage machine learning as a means to identify the genetic factors that underlie the differentiation of bacteria with multipartite and unipartite genomes.

Article describes how, although pennycress, a winter annual, could be grown as a dedicated bioenergy crop, an increase in its seed oil content is required to improve its economic competitiveness. In this work, the authors combined biomass composition with metabolomic and transcriptomic studies of developing embryos from 22 pennycress natural variants to identify targets for oil improvement.

Article describes how induction of high photosynthetic capacity is a key acclimation response to high light for many herbaceous dicot plants. Here, a systems biology approach was utilized to characterize the induction of high photosynthetic capacity in strongly and weakly acclimating Arabidopsis thaliana accessions.

Article asserts that the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus; LEPC) is an iconic North American prairie grouse, renowned for ornate and spectacular breeding season displays, a species that has been declining in population across much of its historical range, with corresponding precipitous declines in contemporary population abundance, largely due to climatic and anthropogenic factors. The authors describe an annotated reference genome that was generated from a LEPC sample collected from the southern DPS.

Article describes the devastating effects of nuclear radiation and its long-lasting consequences on Earth’s ecosystems. The authors call upon all scientists to communicate the importance of the environmental impacts of such an event to all life forms on Earth, including humankind.

Authors of the article assert that imaging has long supported our ability to understand the inner life of plants, their development, and response to a dynamic environment. The purpose of this review was to provide the scientific community with an overview of current imaging methods, which rely variously on either nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS) or infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and to present some examples of their application in order to illustrate their utility.

Article presents POSMM, Python-Optimized Standard Markov Model classifier, which is a new incarnation of the Markov model approach to metagenomic sequence analysis. The authors claim that by combining POSMM with ultrafast classifiers such as Kraken2, their complementary strengths can be leveraged to produce higher overall accuracy in metagenomic sequence classification than by either as a standalone classifier. POSMM is a user-friendly and highly adaptable tool designed for broad use by the metagenome scientific community.

Article asserts that the delivery of consistent and accurate fine-resolution data on biodiversity using metabarcoding promises to improve environmental assessment and research. The authors propose a novel hierarchical approach to recovering abundance information from metabarcoding, and demonstrate this technique using benthic macroinvertebrates.

Authors of the article state that various growth systems are available for studying plant root growth and plant–microbe interactions including hydroponics and aeroponics. The aim of their study is to present step-by-step instructions for fabricating an aeroponic system, also called a “caisson,” that has been in use in several legume research labs studying the development of symbiotic nitrogen fixing nodules, but for which detailed directions are not currently available.

This is a correction to an article. The affiliation of the first author was published incorrectly.

Article describes how products of plant secondary metabolism, such as phenolic compounds, flavonoids, alkaloids, and hormones, play an important role in plant growth, development, stress resistance. The authors state that the overall goal of this study was to develop a high-throughput workflow to identify and quantify plant polyphenols.

Article describes how, in his 1945 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Sir Alexander Fleming warned of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) if the necessary precautions were not taken diligently. This paper explores the applications of ML in predicting and understanding AMR, highlighting its potential in revolutionizing healthcare practices.

Article describes how within the genome of a pathogen is the information regarding factors responsible for its pathogenicity. the authors of the article developed a novel pipeline that uses standard protocol in combination with gene co-expression network of a pathogen constructed using publicly available RNA-Seq data sets.

Article discusses how the south Florida subspecies of the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus extimus) is distinctly paler and smaller than other subspecies, reproduces at a lower rate, and can occupy very different habitats such as open marshes and grasslands with only scattered trees. The authors evaluated population differentiation between the south Florida population of Red-shouldered Hawks and two populations of eastern Red-shouldered Hawks (B. l. lineatus) in suburban (Cincinnati) and rural (Hocking Hills) environments in southern Ohio.

Article describes how DNA-based aquatic biomonitoring methods show promise to provide rapid, standardized, and efficient biodiversity assessment to supplement and in some cases replace current morphology-based approaches that are often less efficient and can produce inconsistent results. The authors present a comparison of DNA metabarcoding and morphological identification, leveraging national-scale, open-source, ecological datasets from the National Ecological Observatory Network.

Article states that gene editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 are often thought of as a means to prevent gene expression; however, a more subtle and yet powerful approach is the enhancement of gene expression by precise deletion of repressor sites within a gene of interest. Authors argue that gene editing of miRNA target sites is preferable over deletion of the miRNA genes themselves, given that it avoids the pitfalls of unspecific derepression of miRNA target(s) beyond the gene of interest.

Article states that elongator complexes (ELPs) are the protein complexes that promote transcription through histone acetylation in eukaryotic cells and interact with elongating RNA polymerase II. ELPs’ role in plant growth and development, signal transduction, and response to biotic and abiotic stresses have been confirmed in model plants, but the functions of the wheat ELP genes are not well documented. The present study identified 18 members of the ELPs from the wheat genome with a homology search.

Article describes how the conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks to fermentable sugar for biofuel production is inefficient, and most strategies to enhance efficiency directly target lignin biosynthesis, with associated negative growth impacts. The authors demonstrate, for both laboratory-and field-grown plants, that expression of Pag-miR408 in poplar significantly enhances saccharification, with no requirement for acid-pretreatment, while promoting plant growth.

Article describes how, in the field of phylogenetic systematics, the terms homology and homologue and their relationship to cladistic terms such as character, character state, synapomorphy and symplesiomorphy, as well as their relationships to each other, have been and are still discussed frequently. A recent re-emergence of concepts of homology/homologue free of any reference to explanatory hypotheses prompted the authors to explore these concepts and their relationships to each other as well as to the concept of morpheme, as introduced recently.

Article describes how C-lignin is a homopolymer of caffeyl alcohol present in the seed coats of a variety of plant species including vanilla orchid, various cacti, and the ornamental plant Cleome hassleriana. The authors used information from a transcriptomic analysis of developing C. hassleriana seed coats to suggest strategies for engineering C-lignin in a heterologous system, using hairy roots of the model legume Medicago truncatula.

Article describes how an antagonistic hemolymph-muscular system is essential for soft-bodied invertebrates. The authors analyzed the entire circulatory system of the peripatopsid Euperipatoides rowelli and claimed they discovered a surprisingly elaborate organization.

Article describes how, in efforts to prevent extinction, resource managers are often tasked with increasing genetic diversity in a population of concern to prevent inbreeding depression or improve adaptive potential in a changing environment. The authors used whole-genome resequencing to generate over two million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from multiple individuals of all peregrine falcon subspecies.

Article discusses authors' findings that through genetic screening for suppressors of defense gene induction in the low lignin ccr1-3 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, we found that loss of function of the receptor-like kinase FERONIA, although not restoring growth, affected cell wall remodeling and blocked release of elicitor-active pectic polysaccharides as a result of the ccr1-3 mutation. They determine that engineering plant cell walls will require development of ways to bypass endogenous pectin signaling pathways.

Article describes how silicon can be important for the growth, functioning, and stoichiometric regulation of nutrients for high-Si-accumulating bamboo. The authors demonstrated that silicon supply can decrease the ratio of C:Si in bamboo leaves and increase the ratio of N:P without altering nutrient status or the N:P ratio of tree spalings.