Article discusses how a bifunctional peroxidase enzyme, 4-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H/APX), provides a parallel route to the shikimate shunt pathway for the conversion of 4-coumarate to caffeate in the early steps of lignin biosynthesis. Here, a multi-omic approach was used to characterize molecular changes resulting from C3H/APX-KD associated lignin modification and negative growth phenotype in Brachypodium distachyon.

The authors of the article used pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) across South Dakota, USA as a model species to identify environmental factors driving spatiotemporal variation in population productivity. They found that the amount of grassland at a local spatial scale was the primary factor influencing an area being a HotSpot.

Article describes how kudzu produces both O- and C-glycosylated isoflavones, with puerarin (C-glucosyl daidzein) as an important bioactive compound. The authors go on to explain how expression of recombinant UGTs in Escherichia coli and candidate C-glycosyltransferases in Medicago truncatula were used to explore substrate specificities, and gene silencing of UGT and key isoflavone biosynthetic genes in kudzu hairy roots employed to test hypotheses concerning the substrate(s) for C-glycosylation.

Article describes the Streptomyces sanglieri bacteriophages AxeJC, Cumberbatch, Eastland,Eklok, HFrancette, Ignacio, Piccadilly, and Vondra form a novel actinobacteriophage cluster,BP. These siphoviruses have circularly permuted genomes with an average size of 37,700 bp and a GC content of 71%. Each genome contains approximately 58 protein-coding genes, with no tRNAs.