Helen Brabham is a team leader at 2Blades, where her work focuses on discovering sustainable approaches for eradicating plant diseases. Helen talks to Nature Plants about her experiences in academia and industry and how researchers can bridge the gap between these two worlds.

Plants face constant microbial threats and have evolved highly effective inducible immune systems, culminating in systemic acquired resistance. Plant systemic acquired resistance and mammalian trained immunity share striking similarities, which are explored in this Review.

This study reveals that plant proteins MAIL1, MAIN and MAIL2 function as anti-silencing factors that maintain active gene expression. They bind specific DNA motifs to prevent Polycomb-mediated repression, which is crucial for normal development.

Feng et al. uncover a retrograde trafficking route from the plant vacuole, showing that sorting nexins retrieve the plant-specific SNARE VAMP727 and revealing distinct pathways from the core retromer system.

This genome-wide association study identifies CELL DIVISION CYCLE-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN 7 (CDCA7) as a regulator of DNA methylation in natural Arabidopsis thaliana populations. CDCA7 binds the chromatin remodeller DDM1 and modulates the control of CG methylation.

Despite the extensive use of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system, parts of its biology remain unknown, including the architecture of its largest cellular protein assembly, the nuclear pore complex (NPC). Using cryo-electron tomography, we have obtained the three-dimensional architecture of the A. thaliana NPC, which suggests it has both conserved and distinct features.

This study reports a modular-cloning-based platform for high-throughput chloroplast engineering in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that allows large-scale characterization of genetic parts and prototyping of new traits, as demonstrated for the photorespiration pathway.

Dichogamy — the temporal separation of anther dehiscence and stigma receptivity — is ubiquitous in angiosperms. Using field investigations, Mendelian inheritance experiments, multi-omics analysis based on haplotype-resolved genomes and validation of gene function, we identify SMPED1 as a novel gene that controls the synchrony of sex organ behaviour in angiosperms.

The evolutionary diversification of an exocyst subunit was enabled by electrostatic shifts leading to its dissociation from the ancestral complex.

Using advanced imaging techniques and computer modelling, the authors were able to create a detailed structural model of a nuclear pore complex from a seed plant.

In maize, ZmDapF1 suppresses the activity of ZmMDH6 in chloroplasts, exacerbating oxidative damage under drought. Knocking out ZmDapF1 or using its favourable allele with lower gene expression enhances drought resilience without yield penalty.

Seagrass genomes of the deep-water Zostera pacifica and shallow-water Z. marina from the Eastern Pacific Ocean provide evidence for low-light adaptation exemplified in the wild hybrid Z. marina × pacifica subjected to low-light stress in aquaria.