Gentians are important ornamental plants in Japan, but available genetic resources remain limited. In this study, a simple and efficient regeneration-based mutagenesis method using ion beam irradiation was developed. Double-flowered gentian mutants were successfully obtained from regenerated plants derived from ion beam-irradiated in vitro leaves, and molecular analysis revealed that this mutation resulted from a deletion of AG1, which is known to be involved in the double-flowered phenotype (Nishihara et al., pp. 423–429).
Upper left panel: Single-flowered original cultivar. Upper right panel: Double-flowered mutant. Lower panel: Organs of double-flowered mutant (from left to right: sepals, petals, petaloid stamens, and pistil).
Location: Iwate Biotechnology Research Center (Iwate, Japan)
Photography: Olympus E-M10

The fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae (Ct) has demonstrated its ability to support phosphorus (P) uptake in Arabidopsis under P-limited conditions. In this study, we investigated its potential to enhance nutrient uptake and promote the growth of the leafy vegetable komatsuna (pp. 371–382). Ct inoculation at medium-to-soil ratios of 1% and 5% significantly improved P nutrition in both P-deficient and P-sufficient soils. Additionally, Ct appeared to stimulate the activity of other beneficial soil microbes in the rhizosphere.
The photograph was taken by FV3000 confocal microscopy. Representative confocal images of plant cell membrane (A. thaliana expressing PIP2A-mCherry) and plant cell wall and fungal hyphae visualized by SCRI Renaissance 2200 Stain (cyan) at 5 days after direct inoculation on root tips. A 60.0×UPLSAPO60X objective lens (1.35 numerical aperture) was used. Taken by Ren Ujimatsu at UTokyo.

Suberin comprises a glycerol-esterified polyaliphatic domain associated with an ester-bonded polyaromatic domain mainly derived from ferulic acid. The suberized cell walls function as an interface that separates adjacent tissues and tissues from the environment. Fluorol yellow 088 detects the aliphatic component of suberin and is widely used for detecting the deposition patterns of suberin lamellae in plant tissues. In this issue, Yamauchi et al. propose a rapid method to minimize the time required for the suberin staining of root cross-sections (See Yamauchi et al., pp. 185 188). The cover photos show the endodermis (left) and exodermis (right) of rice roots stained with fluorol yellow 088. The suberin lamellae were detected with a charge-coupled device camera (DP74; Evident) as yellow fluorescence upon excitation by UV light under a fluorescence microscope (BX53-FL; Evident).

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).