Drought severely jeopardizes global apple production, yet the core molecular mechanisms enabling stress resistance remain insufficiently understood. This study reveals that strigolactones (SLs) significantly enhance drought tolerance by activating the gene MsABI5, which promotes proline biosynthesis via MsP5CS2.2. Meanwhile, MsABI5 also increases MsNAC022 expression and suppresses the negative regulator MsSMXL1, relieving transcriptional inhibition that limits stress responses. Together, the regulatory architecture improves water retention, reduces membrane damage, and maintains chlorophyll stability under drought. These findings uncover a hormone-responsive module that can serve as a valuable genetic target for developing drought-resilient apple cultivars.

Gray blight poses a major threat to global tea production, yet the epigenetic mechanisms regulating plant immunity have remained unclear. A new study uncovers that the arginine methyltransferase CsPRMT5 suppresses disease resistance by mediating H4R3 symmetric dimethylation, which inhibits immune-related genes. When CsPRMT5 is reduced, histone H4R3sme2 levels decline, allowing stronger activation of defense pathways, including enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and elevated expression of CsMAPK3. Both gene-silenced tea leaves and Arabidopsis mutants showed improved resistance after infection. The discovery highlights histone methylation as a regulatory switch controlling tea plant immunity and offers a potential molecular target for breeding disease-resistant cultivars.

Leaf drooping increases leaf breakage during mechanical harvesting, lowering tea yield and quality. The study reveals that CsTPR, a TETRATRICOPEPTIDE REPEAT gene, plays a key role in maintaining leaf straightness by suppressing brassinosteroid-induced droopiness. A single-base mutation in CsTPR promoter strengthens repression by the transcription factor CsBES1.2, reducing CsTPR expression and ultimately enhancing leaf drooping. Functional verification using gene-silenced plants confirmed that CsTPR acts as a negative regulator of leaf drooping, influencing vascular development and leaf tip angle. This work uncovers a molecular mechanism that links promoter variation to drooping traits, providing genetic targets for breeding cultivars suitable for mechanical harvesting.

Tanshinones are major bioactive components in Salvia miltiorrhiza and are widely used in cardiovascular therapies. However, their naturally low content limits pharmaceutical utilization. This study reveals a transcriptional regulatory module involving SmWRKY32, SmbHLH65, and SmbHLH85 that directly shapes tanshinone biosynthesis. The researchers demonstrate that SmbHLH65 and SmbHLH85 act as positive regulators promoting tanshinone accumulation, while SmWRKY32 functions as a suppressor by downregulating SmbHLH65. Overexpressing SmbHLH65 or SmbHLH85 significantly increases tanshinone levels, whereas silencing these factors decreases production. These findings uncover a coordinated gene–protein interaction network providing new molecular targets for metabolic engineering to enhance tanshinone yield.

Terpenoids are among the most pharmacologically valuable plant metabolites, yet their biosynthetic gene clusters in Euphorbiaceae have remained largely unexplored. This study establishes a comprehensive genome-wide identification framework and analyzes terpene gene clusters using multi-omics data. A total of 1824 candidate clusters were detected in seven Euphorbiaceae species, and 16 were confirmed as high-confidence terpene clusters after strict screening based on TPS/CYP pairing, copathway linkage, and coexpression patterns. Notably, casbene and casbene-derived diterpenoid gene clusters were identified, providing new clues to the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds such as neocembrene, ingenanes, and jatrophanes. This work lays a foundation for metabolic engineering and drug development linked to Euphorbiaceae terpenoids.