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This article is a tribute to the late Prof. Simon R. Leather, a highly respected entomologist. It includes personal reflections from colleagues who worked closely with Prof. Leather, highlighting his dedication, expertise, and impact on the field of entomology. The article also mentions his role as an editor for scientific journals and his contributions to research and education. Overall, it pays homage to Prof. Leather's significant contributions and influence in the field of entomology. [Extracted from the article]

Compared to C3 species, C4 plants showed higher photosynthetic capacity as well as water and nitrogen use efficiency due to the presence of the C4 photosynthetic pathway. Previous studies have shown that all genes required for the C4 photosynthetic pathway exist in the genomes of C3 species and are expressed. In this study, the genes encoding six key C4 photosynthetic pathway enzymes (β-CA, PEPC, ME, MDH, RbcS, and PPDK) in the genomes of five important gramineous crops (C4: maize, foxtail millet, and sorghum; C3: rice and wheat) were systematically identified and compared. Based on sequence characteristics and evolutionary relationships, their C4 functional gene copies were distinguished from non-photosynthetic functional gene copies. Furthermore, multiple sequence alignment revealed important sites affecting the activities of PEPC and RbcS between the C3 and C4 species. Comparisons of expression characteristics confirmed that the expression patterns of nonphotosynthetic gene copies were relatively conserved among species, while C4 gene copies in C4 species acquired new tissue expression patterns during evolution. Additionally, multiple sequence features that may affect C4 gene expression and subcellular localization were found in the coding and promoter regions. Our work emphasized the diversity of the evolution of different genes in the C4 photosynthetic pathway and confirmed that the specific high expression in the leaf and appropriate intracellular distribution were the keys to the evolution of C4 photosynthesis. The results of this study will help determine the evolutionary mechanism of the C4 photosynthetic pathway in Gramineae and provide references for the transformation of C4 photosynthetic pathways in wheat, rice, and other major C3 cereal crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world needs more than double its current agricultural productivity by 2050 to produce enough food and feed, as well as to provide feedstock for the bioeconomy. These future increases will not only need to be sustainable but without comprommising the nutritional quality, and ideally also need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration to help mitigate the consequences of global climate change. These challenges could be tackled by developing and integrating new future‐proof crops into our food system. The H2020 CropBooster‐P project sets out plant‐centered breeding approaches guided by a broad socio‐economic and societal support. First, the potential approaches for breeding crops with sustainably increased yields adapted to the future climate of Europe are identified. These crop‐breeding options are subsequently prioritized and their adoption considered by experts across the agri‐food system and the wider public, taking into account environmental, economic and other technical criteria. In this way, a specific research agenda to future‐proof our crops was developed, supported by an eventual implementation plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant scientists and farmers are facing major challenges in providing food and nutritional security for a growing population, while preserving natural resources and biodiversity. Moreover, this should be done while adapting agriculture to climate change and by reducing its carbon footprint. To address these challenges, there is an urgent need to breed crops that are more resilient to suboptimal environments. Huge progress has recently been made in understanding the physiological, genetic and molecular bases of plant nutrition and environmental responses, paving the way towards a more sustainable agriculture. In this review, we present an overview of these progresses and strategies that could be developed to increase plant nutrient use efficiency and tolerance to abiotic stresses. As illustrated by many examples, they already led to promising achievements and crop improvements. Here, we focus on nitrogen and phosphate uptake and use efficiency and on adaptation to drought, salinity and heat stress. These examples first show the necessity of deepening our physiological and molecular understanding of plant environmental responses. In particular, more attention should be paid to investigate stress combinations and stress recovery and acclimation that have been largely neglected to date. It will be necessary to extend these approaches from model plants to crops, to unravel the relevant molecular targets of biotechnological or genetic strategies directly in these species. Similarly, sustained efforts should be done for further exploring the genetic resources available in these species, as well as in wild species adapted to unfavourable environments. Finally, technological developments will be required to breed crops that are more resilient and efficient. This especially relates to the development of multiscale phenotyping under field conditions and a wide range of environments, and use of modelling and big data management to handle the huge amount of information provided by the new molecular, genetic and phenotyping techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In photosynthetic organisms, D-ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is the major enzyme assimilating atmospheric C[O.sub.2] into the biosphere (1). Owing to the wasteful oxygenase activity and slow turnover of Rubisco, the enzyme is among the most important targets for improving the photosynthetic efficiency of vascular plants (2,3). It has been anticipated that introducing the C[O.sub.2]-concentrating mechanism (CCM) from cyanobacteria into plants could enhance crop yield (4-6). However, the complex nature of Rubisco's assembly has made manipulation of the enzyme extremely challenging, and attempts to replace it in plants with the enzymes from cyano-bacteria and red algae have not been successful (7,8). Here we report two transplastomic tobacco lines with functional Rubisco from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942 (Se7942). We knocked out the native tobacco gene encoding the large subunit of Rubisco by inserting the large and small subunit genes of the Se7942 enzyme, in combination with either the corresponding Se7942 assembly chaperone, RbcX, or an internal carboxysomal protein, CcmM35, which incorporates three small subunit-like domains (9,10). Se7942 Rubisco and CcmM35 formed macromolecular complexes within the chloroplast stroma, mirroring an early step in the biogenesis of cyanobacterial β-carboxysomes (11,12). Both transformed lines were photosynthetically competent, supporting autotrophic growth, and their respective forms of Rubisco had higher rates of C[O.sub.2] fixation per unit of enzyme than the tobacco control. These transplastomic tobacco lines represent an important step towards improved photosynthesis in plants and will be valuable hosts for future addition of the remaining components of the cyanobacterial CCM, such as inorganic carbon transporters and the β-carboxysome shell proteins (4-6)., Rubisco catalyses the incorporation of C[O.sub.2] into biological compounds in photosynthetic organisms (1). During photorespiration, Rubisco also reacts wastefully with oxygen, leading to the release of previously fixed C[O.sub.2], N[H.sub.3] [...]

The cover image is based on the Article Special issue on entomology: A tribute to Prof. Simon R. Leather by Ricardo A. Azevedo et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12936..By Ricardo A. Azevedo; Tom W. Pope; Andrew Wilcox; Joe M. Roberts; Carol A. Millman; Matthew A. Back; Guðbjörg I. Aradóttir and Martin A. J. ParryReported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]