The cover photograph shows a root cell of Arabidopsis thaliana that was simultaneously immunostained with anti-actin and anti-α-tubulin antibody. The images are as follows: left shows anti-actin staining, middle shows anti-α-tubulin staining, and right shows the merged image. This study presents a whole-mount immunostaining technique for the double labeling of actin filaments and microtubules.

These photographs were taken by Toshiki Amari and Hirotomo Takatsuka in Kanazawa University, Japan, 2024 (Nikon A1 confocal laser scanning microscope system equipped with CFI SR HP Plan-Apochromat Lamda S 100xC silicon immersion objective). Adapted from Amari et al (pp. 87–92).

We present the genome assembly of a miniature tomato cultivar, Micro-Tom (Shirasawa & Ariizumi, pp. 367–374). As there are genetic variations in the Micro-Tom lines (Nagasaki et al. 2024, DNA Res 13: dsae016), the genome data of the standard line used in NBRP-Tomato, where massive genomic and genetic resources are developed, was required. We therefore launched the genome project on this line at JSOL2022 meeting (October 8–9, 2022, at Okayama University) and decided to present the result in the next meeting. We used a high-fidelity long-read sequencing technology and successfully completed the analysis within a year. The data was released through bioRxiv (October 31, 2023) and the achievement was announced at JSOL2023 (November 9–10, 2023, at Osaka Metropolitan University), thus fulfilling the promise. Subsequently, the genome data was honorably selected as the NCBI reference sequence of tomato due to the highest quality assembly reported to date.

Illustration by Kenta Shirasawa (Kazusa DNA Research Institute) using Circos program.

This cover illustrates the concept of synthetic biology and bioproduction in plants. Plants absorb CO₂ and, through the introduction of gene circuits from other organisms or artificially generated, can produce a variety of products, including pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, raw materials for bioplastics, biofuels, and more.
The concepts of gene editing, metabolic pathway shifting, gene network manipulation, and the DBTL (Design-Build-Test-Learn) cycle are crucial for the implementation of synthetic biology and bioproduction in plants. The goal of synthetic biology and bioproduction in plants is to contribute to carbon recycling, which is a central component of the bioeconomy. Chemical structures of lignin, acteoside, menthol, corosolic acid, and isoprene are described clockwise from left top.

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The anthocyanin related glutathione S-transferase (GST) belongs to the Phi class of the GST family and has been regarded to play a role in anthocyanin transport to the vacuole. We isolated its orthologue from the torenia petal. Transgenic plants transcribing GST double stranded RNA were generated from a blue torenia. Resultant plants exhibited a range of flower colors, from blue to almost white. However, pure white flowers were not obtained in site of significant downregulation of the GST transcript. Anthocyanin levels in the petals of the transgenic plants decreased, whereas flavone levels remained unchanged. Anthocyanins and flavones may be transported to the vacuole through different mechanisms (Akagi et al, pp. 147–151) .