New biologically relevant resistance to bacterial wilt in heat-stressed tomato revealed by two-reference Genome Wide Association

Integrative systems analysis reveals heat-induced functional divergence in cultivated and wild tomato genotypes

Extreme heat events driven by global warming increasingly threaten the productivity of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.). While thermotolerance is often evaluated through individual physiological traits, resilience emerges from coordinated, multi-level regulation across growth dynamics and cellular stress responses. Here, we analyzed a diverse and contrasting panel of cultivated and wild tomato genotypes to resolve multidimensional stress-response strategies. Morphological, physiological, and biochemical traits were systematically quantified and integrated using the Stress Tolerance Index (STI), Membership Function Value (MFV), and correlation network analysis. Heat exposure induced pronounced, genotype-dependent divergence in biomass retention, membrane stability, pigment integrity, osmotic adjustment, and antioxidant capacity. Sensitive accessions (e.g., S. chilense PI 251313) exhibited severe growth suppression, chlorophyll loss, and elevated lipid peroxidation. In contrast, the commercial cultivar S. lycopersicum cv. İksir maintained biomass and structural stability, whereas the wild accession S. pimpinellifolium PI 365957 displayed enhanced antioxidant coordination and membrane protection. Network analysis revealed a heat-induced shift from growth-centered regulation to a tightly interconnected stress-response module, with strong associations among proline, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. Multivariate integration consistently ranked S. lycopersicum cv. İksir and S. pimpinellifolium PI 365957 as the most thermotolerant genotypes at the vegetative stage under acute thermal stress (45 °C), highlighting complementary adaptive strategies across cultivated and wild backgrounds. Collectively, these findings establish thermotolerance as an emergent systems property and identify wild relatives as valuable reservoirs of coordinated stress-adaptive traits for climate-resilient tomato breeding.

The Rice-Xoc Arms Race: Molecular Mechanisms and Genomic Strategies Against Bacterial Leaf Streak.

It is concluded that future breeding programs will integrate advanced genetic and computational tools to develop rice varieties with durable and broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial leaf streak and other pathogens.

Cell-based crop phenotyping for future climates.

Abiotic stress tolerance has been significantly weakened in modern crops during the domestication process. Regaining tolerance has become a critical task in light of current climate trends and their impact on global food security. Abiotic stress tolerance is an extremely complex trait and is conferred at various levels of plant functional organization and developmental stages, with regulatory mechanisms operating across multiple scales, from individual cells to tissues and the entire plant. The emergence of advanced molecular tools such as single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial omics technologies has revolutionized the field, advancing our understanding of plant responses to hostile environments. However, the implementation of this knowledge in crop breeding programmes is handicapped by the lack of appropriate phenotyping platforms. Here, we argue that current phenotyping methods may be excellent tools for functional validation of previously discovered traits but have limited predictive value in stress biology. We also propose that bridging the mismatch between omics technologies and phenotyping is the only way to account for cell-specific operation of key genes conferring stress tolerance and implementing them in breeding programmes. Some practical examples using cell-based phenotyping tools such as fluorescence dyes or electrophysiological methods are given, and current limitations and prospects of cell-based phenotyping are discussed.

Genomics-assisted Improvement of Resistance to Insect Pests, Diseases and Nematodes in Tomato: A Critical Appraisal of Discovery, Durability and Deployment

Whether, and where, genomic technologies have altered breeding outcomes rather than merely accelerating gene discovery is examined, and the available evidence indicates that genomic resources have substantially improved the resolution of resistance discovery and the precision of marker-assisted introgression, but have not yet demonstrably improved durability.

Genomics-Assisted Breeding for Drought Tolerance in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): Recent Advances and Future Prospects

Overall, transcription factors from the DREB, NAC, MYB, and WRKY families are still considered the primary regulatory targets, but CRISPR/Cas-based gene editing is now able to provide precise, multiplex gene modifications in polyploid wheat.

Exploring genetic diversity and stress adaptation in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under terminal heat stress