This study characterizes the OsNLP4–OsD3 module that integrates N–Fe nutrient signals to downregulate SL signaling and thereby promote rice tillering. The results also show that the balanced N–Fe fertilizer can significantly improve grain yield and NUE in both rice and wheat under field conditions.

Global warming threatens food security. In this review, we summarize recent advances regarding the molecular basis of plant perception and response to temperatures during thermomorphogenesis and heat damage. We also provide breeding strategies from a source–sink perspective that can be used for crop improvement to mitigate grain yield losses caused by excess heat.

Japanese rice breeding has produced two different types of rice: one for eating and one for brewing sake, each with unique grain characteristics. By comparing the genome sequence of modern rice varieties for eating and sake brewing, as well as landraces, we found two genes, OsMnS and OsWOX9D, that play a role in creating the differences in their grain quality.

To date, 187 land plants, including 54 413 accessions from various habitats, have been resequenced to investigate their origins, domestication, and radiation and to identify loci conferring desirable traits to accelerate breeding programs, which has enhanced the understanding of plant population genetics and expanded the reservoir of genes valuable for agronomic practices and plant studies. This review summarizes the current progress of population-based genome resequencing studies and how these studies affect crop breeding.