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).

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.