A genetic program for rapid initiation of axillary meristems at the onset of flowering.

September 26, 2026| Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Shoot branching patterns and their diversity arise from variable activities of axillary meristems (AMs). A common feature of flowering plants is delayed AM initiation and growth during the vegetative phase, followed by a sudden and rapid acceleration of apical AM initiation during the reproductive phase. The mechanisms underlying this pronounced developmental shift are poorly understood. During tomato floral transition, the primary shoot meristem (PSM) terminates in a flower after producing two spatially adjacent AMs: one that will generate a flower and the other a vegetative side shoot. In plants lacking the universal floral-promoting mobile protein florigen, these processes are uncoupled: The vegetative AM initiation is delayed, even though termination of the PSM into a flower is largely unaffected. To identify factors that promote AM initiation in response to flowering induction signals, we analyzed a high-temporal-density single-meristem transcriptome profile from wild-type and florigen-defective plants. Our analysis revealed two genes, PUCHI and LOB30 , induced by florigen in incipient AMs. These genes promote rapid initiation of both the vegetative and reproductive AMs, with the latter facilitating formation of a multi-flower inflorescence. Counterintuitively, these genes act in parallel with a PSM maturation program that limits production of reproductive AMs. Together, our findings uncover a florigen-induced regulatory mechanism that controls the reproductive-specific timing of AM initiation and provides a framework for understanding plasticity and diversification of shoot branching patterns.

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Indirect reciprocity with dual private assessment.

People often cooperate out of concern for their reputation. The corresponding theory of indirect reciprocity predicts that such cooperation can only evolve if people's opinions of each other are sufficiently correlated. This correlation, however, can be difficult to achieve when individuals form their opinions independently from one another, as in private assessment models. In that case, errors can generate disagreements that propagate throughout a population. Here, we identify a simple mechanis

Physical/TechSeptember 26, 2026

David Botstein: A pioneering geneticist and educator 1942-2026.

David Botstein, who died on February 27, 2026, was a towering figure in the field of modern molecular genetics. His research career was largely focused on the development of methods to better understand biological systems, beginning with his early work on Salmonella phage P22 and yeast, where he exploited the use of conditional lethal mutations as suppressors to identify genes with common functions and to order them in a pathway. He is best remembered for developing restriction fragment length p

Physical/TechSeptember 26, 2026

Ultra-narrowband organic room-temperature phosphorescence achieved by boosting low-frequency vibronic coupling.

We pioneered a strategy based on low-frequency vibronic coupling to design narrowband room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials. Here we select coronene derivative (CoDe) system and report that attaching aroyl group to the coronene core disrupts its intrinsic symmetry and introduces abundant low-frequency vibrational modes, thereby affording efficient room-temperature phosphorescence with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 25 nm or narrower. In CoDe systems functionalized

Physical/TechSeptember 25, 2026

Multidomain interaction governs the filamentous assembly of the dominant-negative DNMT3A R882H mutant.

DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A-mediated de novo DNA methylation is important for proper regulation of gene expression and genomic stability in development. The DNMT3A R882H (DNMT3A R882H ) mutation, a hot-spot mutation in acute myeloid leukemia and developmental disorders, exerts a dominant-negative effect in DNMT3A-mediated DNA methylation through promoting high-order protein assembly. However, due to the lack of structural knowledge on DNMT3A homo-oligomers, the mechanism behind wild-type DNMT3A

Physical/TechSeptember 21, 2026

Advances in small area population estimation in the absence of national census data.

Population data at small area scales are essential for effective decision-making, influencing public health, disaster response, and resource allocation, among others. While national censuses remain the cornerstone of population data, they are often constrained by high costs, infrequent collection cycles, and coverage gaps, which can hinder timely data availability. To address these challenges, geospatial statistical approaches using limited microcensus surveys have been demonstrated as a reliabl