Search Results (28,679)

Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are central to plant defense; however, their roles in regulating secondary metabolism remain largely unexplored. In Panax ginseng, the molecular characteristics and functional links of PR1 and PR10 gene families to ginsenoside biosynthesis remain unclear. Here, we conducted genome and transcriptome identification, evolutionary analysis, co-expression network construction, and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) induction assays to investigate their roles. We identified 34 PR1/PR10 family members (11 PgPR1s and 23 PgPR10s) unevenly distributed across 15 chromosomes, with gene duplication driving family expansion. Functional divergence was evident: PgPR1 members are evolutionarily conserved and root-preferential, associated with antibacterial defense, whereas PgPR10 underwent species-specific expansion, showed broad tissue expression, and possessed promoters enriched with hormone- and stress-responsive cis-elements. Co-expression analysis (|r| ≥ 0.3, p < 0.001) identified PgPR1-5 and PgPR10-8 as the only PR members significantly correlated with key ginsenoside biosynthetic enzymes. Under MeJA, the ginsenoside pathway displayed bidirectional temporal regulation, with core PR genes showing synchronized expression with the negatively regulated enzyme gene CAS_14. Our study characterizes the molecular and evolutionary features of PgPR1/PgPR10 families, identifies core PR genes associated with ginsenoside metabolism, and reveals their coordinated response to MeJA, providing key insights and candidate targets for exploring the potential link between PR proteins and ginsenoside biosynthesis and promising candidate genes for further research on P. ginseng. Full article

A circular DNA enrichment sequencing (CIDER-Seq) approach identified a New World (NW) begomovirus–alphasatellite complex associated with a leaf curl disease of tomato from plants collected in Morelos, México. Using one of 21 samples showing virosis-associated symptoms, CIDER-Seq data revealed the presence of various NW begomovirus species, namely Begomovirus solanumaureivariati (tomato golden mottle virus: ToGMoV), Begomovirus solanumseveri (tomato severe leaf curl virus: ToSLCV), and Begomovirus solanumlapazense (tomato chino La Paz virus: ToChLPV). Additionally, the alphasatellites Whiflysatellite guatemalaense (whitefly-associated Guatemala alphasatellite 1: WfaGA1) and Clecrusatellite guatemalaense (whitefly-associated Guatemala alphasatellite 2: WfaGA2) were identified, demonstrating that begomoviruses can co-infect with alphasatellites; however, the pathogenic implications of the alphasatellite–helper begomovirus association remain incompletely understood. PCR-based detection and Sanger sequencing of circular viral genomes revealed a high frequency of detection of mixed infections comprising all components of the begomovirus–alphasatellite complex, confirming the reliability of the CIDER-Seq approach in producing high-fidelity sequences. Molecular and biological analysis revealed the complex adaptation to tomato, the monopartite nature of ToSLCV/ToChLPV species, and the ability of these begomovirus species to act as helper viruses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf curl disease of tomato associated with a begomovirus–alphasatellite complex in Mexico. Full article

Plant functional traits are key indicators of plant responses to environmental conditions and resource-allocation trade-offs, thereby providing insights into adaptive mechanisms across habitats. Wetlands are one of the major habitats worldwide, yet organ-level plant life adaptive strategies in different wetland types remain insufficiently understood. This study compared three representative marsh systems located in different regions of Northeast China. Forty-five plant community plots were established, and 10 leaf traits, 13 root traits, and 8 soil environmental variables were systematically measured for dominant herbaceous species. We examined above- and belowground trait trade-offs using Pearson correlation analysis and assessed their responses to environmental gradients using redundancy analysis (RDA). The results showed that trait variability differed markedly among marsh types. Inland salt marshes exhibited the greatest variation in leaf and root morphology, while morphological traits generally varied more strongly than ecophysiological traits. In inland salt marshes, root ecophysiological traits were closely associated with leaf morphology. Forested marshes showed multi-trait trade-offs and nutrient regulation, whereas freshwater herbaceous marshes displayed strong leaf-root trait correlations, indicating flexible inter-organ nutrient allocation. Soil environmental properties explained different proportions of functional trait variation across habitats, with the highest explanatory power in forested marshes (42.85%), followed by freshwater herbaceous marshes (34.56%) and inland salt marshes (34.41%). Soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio significantly affected plant growth in all three habitats, although the other environmental drivers were habitat-specific. These findings reveal distinct community-level patterns of leaf–root trait variation and coordination among the sampled dominant herbaceous species across the three marsh habitats, providing empirical evidence for understanding wetland plant adaptation mechanisms in Northeast China. Full article

Dahlia is an economically important ornamental crop in the United States and worldwide. Dahlia is primarily propagated vegetatively through bulbs, which can result in vertical transmission of and constant accumulation of viruses. In this study, mosaic and yellowing symptoms were observed in Dahlia plants in a residential garden in California. Dahlia samples were collected and sequenced using high-throughput sequencing (HTS). HTS analysis was used to explore the Dahlia virome in the symptomatic plants, which revealed the presence of several contigs with homology to known Dahlia-infecting viruses, such as Dahlia common mosaic virus (DCMV) and tobacco streak virus (TSV), and Dahlia latent viroid. However, two contigs showed that they belong to the genera Potyvirus and Miraophiovirus with low to medium homology to previously known Potyvirus and Miraophiovirus species. Sequence identity showed that these two contigs represent two novel viruses tentatively named Dahlia potyvirus 1 (DaPoV1) and Dahlia miraophiovirus 1 (DaMV1). In addition, two other contigs showed low homology to a partitivirus and yue-like virus, indicating novelty. Mechanical inoculation of infected Dahlia tissue did not result in successful transmission onto indicator hosts. Electron microscopy of symptomatic plants showed typical potyviral-like flexuous virions. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the placement of DaPoV1 and DaMV1 in their respective genera. This study represents a significant expansion of the known Dahlia virome and uncovers the complexity of viral infections where DCMV and TSV have been historically the primary focus in Dahlia. Widespread surveys should reveal the distribution of these viruses at commercial production sites. Full article

Urban blue–green spaces (UBGSs) are critical for biodiversity, yet our understanding of how plant diversity in these spaces responds to urbanization across different UBGS types remains limited. Here, we investigated plant communities in four sampled UBGSs along an urban gradient in the Minjiang River Basin, China. Because each blue–green space type is represented by a single site, all comparisons are site-specific and descriptive. Using species richness (S), the Shannon–Wiener index (H′), Pielou’s evenness index (J′), frequency (F), and importance value (I.V.), we described whether taxonomic composition and diversity patterns differed among the four sampled sites. Across all sites, based on 615 species records, angiosperms dominated (92.6%), and cosmopolitan families (e.g., Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae) were ubiquitous, consistent with a strong regional species pool influence. However, our cross-site comparison showed a contrasting pattern: the near-natural Baihetan National Wetland Park showed the highest S (12.87) but low evenness (0.49), whereas the intensively managed Huoshui Park, with the lowest richness (9.67), achieved the highest evenness (0.68). Further, a discordance between F and I.V. rankings was observed in the managed site, where ornamental species showed high spatial coverage but low I.V. ranks. We report this rank discordance only as an observational finding, not as a proven metric or indicator. This discordance suggests that richness alone may not fully capture community structure, though its diagnostic value remains unverified. We interpret these contrasting richness–evenness patterns from the four sampled sites. Because site identity is confounded with management intensity, habitat area, and landscape context, no causal attribution to ecological or anthropogenic factors can be made. Evenness and species richness showed different site-to-site patterns, but this association remains observational. We hypothesize that a resilient urban biodiversity network could combine complementary nodes, with large natural wetlands as species-rich sites and constructed parks as structurally balanced units, rather than pursuing a single diversity target. This study provides preliminary insights that may inform planning considerations under Chengdu’s Park City initiative, but these suggestions should be viewed as hypotheses requiring further validation rather than as established management guidelines. The proposed network approach, while conceptually appealing, requires empirical testing through replicated studies before it can be considered for broader application. Full article

The essential oil (EO) industry generates large volumes of solid distillation residues that are commonly discarded as waste, despite their potential as a source of nutrients and bioactive compounds. This study evaluated the chemical quality and the volatile profile of four types of exhausted biomasses (EBs) obtained after steam distillation of EOs from bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), lavandin (L. angustifolia × L. latifolia) and two industrial hemp specimens (Carifit1p, a breeding line, and Codimono, a cultivar), with a view to their potential valorisation in animal feeding. The nutritional composition of the distillation residues was determined according to AOAC methods, while the headspace volatile fraction was characterised by HS-SPME–GC/MS. The EBs were generally characterised by a high fibre content, with the highest crude fibre and NDF values in whole lavender and lavandin plants, whereas the industrial hemp line Carifit1p showed the highest crude protein (17.1% DM) and ash contents. The volatile profiles of the residues differed markedly from those typical of the corresponding fresh EOs: the bay laurel residue was dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons (74.5%) with strongly depleted 1,8-cineole (1.9%), while lavender and lavandin retained high levels of β-caryophyllene (35.8% and 32.4%, respectively). Industrial hemp residues were enriched in oxygenated sesquiterpenes, with caryophyllene oxide reaching 21.2% in Carifit1p and exceeding β-caryophyllene. Overall, the results indicate that EO exhausted biomasses retain a species-specific profile of fibre, residual nutrients and less volatile, less water-soluble terpenoids, supporting their potential reuse as feed ingredients and contributing to a more sustainable, near-zero-waste distillation supply chain. Full article

Soil salinization constrains global wheat production, but how organic–microbial amendments alleviate saline–alkali stress across plant tissues remains poorly characterized. In a single-season field trial, we compared three treatments—a non-saline control (CK), a saline–alkali control (SCK), and an organic fertilizer combined with a microbial inoculant applied to saline–alkali soil (SDM)—to evaluate effects on soil properties, the rhizosphere microbiome structure, leaf antioxidant defense, and grain quality. SDM improved soil nutrient availability: available phosphorus and potassium increased by 96.0% and 51.8%, respectively, relative to SCK, and rhizosphere microbiome shifts favored copiotrophic taxa (Flavobacterium, Devosia, Mortierella) over halotolerant genera (Arthrobacter, Filobasidium). In leaves, SDM induced a controlled antioxidant activation—peroxidase (POD) functioned as a key mediator of oxidative homeostasis, with activities exceeding CK yet remaining below extreme SCK levels—producing the lowest malondialdehyde content (−48.4% vs. SCK). At moderate concentrations, reactive oxygen species participated in developmental signaling rather than causing pathological damage, enabling grain soluble sugars and total starch to be restored to CK levels. These results reveal a coordinated soil–microbiome–plant response in which organic–microbial amendment enhances nutrient cycling, redirects community assembly toward nutrient-cycling functional guilds, and achieves oxidative homeostasis and grain quality restoration. Our findings offer a conceptual basis for the microbiome-informed management of saline–alkali wheat production. Full article

Distinguishing crop from weed species at the seedling stage is a fine-grained morphological discrimination problem. We study it on the public Plant Seedlings benchmark, which contains twelve species (three crops and nine weeds) imaged at the seedling stage. Automated classifiers report near-ceiling accuracy on this benchmark. Yet its images are acquired in controlled trays containing soil, gravel, rulers, barcodes, and printed labels, so a model may identify a species from its acquisition context rather than its morphology. We audit two architectures, EfficientNet-B7 and ViT-B/16, trained on the V2 dataset (5539 images) and probed with plant-only, background-only, and background-swapped inputs. Near-ceiling models (96.1% and 96.4% over three seeds) recover the correct species for up to 47.7% of samples from the background alone (chance 8.3%) and lose about 60 points under background swapping. Context reliance is therefore a property of the benchmark, not any single architecture. Tracing this to its source, an independent learned representation of the plant-free background alone identifies the species at 72.4%. The reliance is correctable end to end: a consistency-regularisation scheme retains 92.1% full-image accuracy for the transformer with no segmentation at inference, at an architecture-dependent cost. Reported accuracy thus partly measures acquisition context, not morphology; morphological grounding should be measured and reported alongside accuracy. Full article

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is considered one of the most important cereals globally, contributing significantly to the human population’s caloric and protein requirements. Therefore, ensuring a sufficient yield of wheat for global consumption plays a significant role in maintaining food security in different parts of the world. With increasing demand and dwindling production capacity, due to increasingly uncertain growing conditions, projections indicate that there should be an upswing of 60–70% in wheat productivity by 2050 to fulfill the requirement. However, drought represents the most significant and widespread abiotic limitation to global wheat production, currently resulting in approximately 10% yield losses worldwide. Furthermore, each additional 1 °C increase in temperature is anticipated to decrease staple calorie production by 4.4%. The factors contributing to drought in wheat, as well as its impact on the plant’s biochemical, physiological, and morphological structures, include altered rainfall patterns, elevated atmospheric CO₂ levels, increased temperatures, hot and dry winds, and restricted soil water availability. These factors initiate a series of morphological, physiological, and biochemical disruptions that hinder wheat growth and productivity. Drought impact on wheat starts at biochemical levels through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and degradation of chlorophylls, and tolerance to stress is influenced by a polygenic system where numerous genes contribute minor effects and interact significantly with environmental factors transitioning to osmoprotectants. At the physiological level, drought alters the water content in the plant body, leading to reduced net photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, transpiration rates, and water utilization efficiency. At the morphological level, drought impacts all kinds of structures such as roots, shoots, leaves and reproductive parts. To counter these effects, wheat develops a set of tolerant mechanisms called drought escape, avoidance and tolerance. An increase in trichomes and leaf waxes, alteration of root–shoot ratios, the staying green phenomenon, production of stress proteins like proline, activity of enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, etc., osmotic adjustment, abscisic acid (ABA) accumulation, expression of dehydration proteins called dehydrin, etc., contribute towards drought tolerance. This comprehensive review investigates the intricate interactions between drought and various wheat genotypes, emphasizing their substantial impacts on plant physiology, biochemistry, growth dynamics, and grain yield. Additionally, this review assesses a variety of genetic and biotechnological strategies aimed at enhancing the resilience of wheat genotypes to drought stress. By integrating recent research findings with practical applications, this review provides a detailed framework for improving the adaptive capacity of wheat plants to withstand the escalating threats of drought stress, thereby supporting sustainable wheat production in a changing climate. Addressing drought stress through genetic and biotechnological management practices is crucial for maintaining wheat productivity. Full article

Soil salinity disrupts redox homeostasis and limits plant growth and development. Although catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) are key enzymatic antioxidants, the CAT and SOD gene families have not been characterized in Artemisia argyi (A. argyi), a species of medicinal and ecological importance. While SOD and CAT serve as the primary enzymatic scavengers for reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification, their genomic architecture and stress-responsive regulatory networks in A. argyi have remained uncharacterized. In this study, we conducted the first comprehensive genome-wide analysis of these gene families in A. argyi, identifying 22 structurally conserved members (8 AarCATs and 14 AarSODs). Collinearity and synteny analyses revealed strict lineage-specific evolutionary conservation, while tertiary protein modeling and subcellular localization illustrated a highly organized multi-organelle defense compartmentalization. High salinity (up to 200 mM NaCl) reduced the stomatal conductance and net photosynthetic rate. Salt stress reduced growth and increased osmoprotectant and antioxidant accumulation in A. argyi. Furthermore, histochemical staining using nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) and 3,3′-Diaminobenzidine (DAB) provided comprehensive evidence of significant accumulation of ROS in leaves, which indicates the intense oxidative stress triggered by ionic stress. Tissue-specific analysis revealed that AarCAT1, AarCSD1, and AarFSD2 were 3.9-, 7.9-, and 12.7-fold higher in leaves than in roots, respectively. Under stress, AarCAT6 and AarCSD1 were strongly repressed in leaves by ~50% and ~46–70%, respectively, whereas AarMSD2 and AarMSD3 were significantly induced in roots by ~2.2- and ~1.8-fold. These distinct expression patterns suggest their potential involvement in tissue-specific stress adaptation and ROS homeostasis. These findings uncover the evolutionary and physiological basis of salt tolerance in A. argyi, providing genetic targets for climate-resilient breeding. Full article

Salinisation and metal contamination are among the leading causes of arable land loss worldwide, yet halophytes and metallophytes—the plants best adapted to these conditions—remain a considerably underexploited biotechnological resource. Using an eco-evo-devo perspective, in which environmental pressure, developmental plasticity and evolutionary outcome interact to shape adaptive traits, we examine evidence that salinity and metal tolerance arose independently and repeatedly across distant angiosperm lineages, converging on comparable structural and physiological solutions: succulence, anatomical transport barriers, root exudation, osmoprotection, and ion compartmentalisation. This convergence distinguishes stress-tolerance mechanisms that are general from those that are stressor-specific, informing efforts to transfer these traits into other extremophytes and conventional crops. In turn, we assess the ecological roles of halophytes and metallophytes in their natural habitats before evaluating their biotechnological applications, which range from halophyte-derived genes and promoters for crop improvement to halophyte biomass for bioenergy, biomaterials and remediation of saline, polluted soils and wastewaters, while metallophytes underpin phytoremediation, phytomining, and biomonitoring of metal-contaminated sites. Notwithstanding this progress, wider exploitation remains limited by the scarcity of crop-relevant gene-editing platforms for halophytes, low biomass yield in metal-hyperaccumulating species, and inconsistent phytochemical standardisation across growing conditions, as well as by three unresolved gaps: the lack of methods to partition host and microbiome contributions to tolerance, uncertainty over whether mechanisms shared between the two groups are convergent or evolutionarily conserved, and the undetermined contribution of epigenetic inheritance to stress adaptation. Translating this evolutionary and physiological knowledge into stress-adapted cultivars, optimised extraction systems, and field-ready phytoremediation and phytomining programmes is central to addressing land degradation, food security, and sustainable resource recovery. Full article

Medicinal plants in the Acanthaceae family have long been used in Thai traditional medicine. In this study, ethanolic extracts of four plant species, Andrographis paniculata, Thunbergia laurifolia, Acanthus ebracteatus, and Rhinacanthus nasutus, were prepared and their phytochemical and pharmacological properties were evaluated. Total phenolic and flavonoid content assays were used to investigate phytochemical content and phytochemical profiles were characterized with LC-MS, while antioxidant activities were assessed via colorimetric methods. The extracts were also tested for antibacterial activity against several skin pathogens, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Cutibacterium acnes, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus, using agar well diffusion and broth dilution methods. Cytotoxic effects on the RAW 264.7 macrophage cell were assessed using the MTT assay. The extracts were further evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity in an LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cell. Inflammatory gene expression was assessed by quantifying the mRNA levels of iNOS, COX-2, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and NF-κB genes using RT-qPCR. The results revealed that among the four species, T. laurifolia extract showed the highest phenolic and flavonoid levels, consistent with the greatest antioxidant activity. Moreover, LC-MS profiling annotated a range of secondary metabolites in the extracts. The inhibition zones were observed for all plant extracts when tested against the skin pathogenic bacteria except C. acnes, and A. paniculata did not inhibit P. aeruginosa, indicating the antibacterial activity of the extracts. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values differed across the extracts and bacterial strains. T. laurifolia exhibited the most potent activity against various bacterial pathogens, while A. paniculata was most effective against C. acnes at 0.98 mg/mL. In addition, all plant extracts reduced nitric oxide production and downregulated the expression of inflammatory genes. Among all plant species, A. paniculata showed the most potent activity with the highest NO inhibition of 65.68% at 60 µg/mL. Therefore, these findings support the antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory potential of A. paniculata, T. laurifolia, A. ebracteatus and R. nasutus, which are traditionally used in folk medicine. Full article

Background: Influenza A virus (IAV) remains an important respiratory pathogen, and medicinal plants continue to provide chemically diverse sources for antiviral research. Dipsacus asperoides and Phlomis umbrosa have both been used under the traditional name ‘Sokdan’ despite their distinct botanical origins and phytochemical compositions. This study comparatively characterized their chemical profiles and in vitro responses to IAV and used network pharmacology as an exploratory approach to identify candidate pathways for subsequent mechanistic studies. Methods: Ethanolic extracts were evaluated for cytotoxicity in MDCK cells, cytopathic effect (CPE) reduction against IAV A/PR/8/34 (H1N1), and neuraminidase (NA) inhibition. LC-QTOF-MS was used for qualitative chemical profiling, and species-specific compound sets were subjected to target prediction, protein–protein interaction analysis, and pathway enrichment. Results: D. asperoides was non-cytotoxic up to 100 µg/mL and P. umbrosa up to 300 µg/mL under the tested conditions. Both extracts produced modest CPE reduction, reaching maximum inhibition of 21.8 ± 1.4% at 100 µg/mL for D. asperoides and 17.1 ± 6.1% at 200 µg/mL for P. umbrosa, whereas zanamivir (5 µM) produced 76.2 ± 0.8% inhibition. NA inhibition was limited for both extracts. LC-QTOF-MS identified twelve constituents with distinct species-associated detection patterns, including phenylpropanoids, iridoid glycosides, and triterpenoid saponins. Exploratory network analysis identified partially overlapping predicted hubs, including MAPK1/3, RELA, IL-6, TNF, and CASP3, together with additional species-specific nodes. Conclusions: Despite clearly different phytochemical profiles, the two Sokdan species showed a shared pattern of modest in vitro antiviral response. The network pharmacology results should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating rather than mechanistic confirmation and suggest candidate host-response pathways that can guide targeted follow-up experiments. These findings support phytochemical differentiation of the two species while providing a comparative framework for future investigation of their antiviral properties. Full article

The characterization of plant-derived extracts is strongly influenced by the extraction procedure and solvent polarity, which determine the recovery of bioactive compounds and volatile constituents. In this study, an electronic nose (E-nose) based on a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensor array was evaluated as a rapid analytical tool for the classification of Cistus extracts obtained using solvents of different polarity. Leaves of Cistus salviifolius, Cistus crispus, and Cistus ladanifer were sequentially extracted with hexane, diethyl ether, tetrahydrofuran (THF), chloroform, ethanol, and methanol. Extraction yield, total phenolic content, flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity were determined, and volatile fingerprints were acquired using the E-nose system. Chemometric analysis was performed using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Differences were observed among extraction solvents regarding extraction efficiency, phytochemical composition, and antioxidant activity. PCA successfully discriminated extracts according to solvent polarity, explaining between 70.96% and 90.22% of the total variance depending on the Cistus species analyzed. Furthermore, the PLS-DA model achieved a classification accuracy of 87.5%, with sensitivity and specificity values of 87.5% and 97.5%, respectively. These results demonstrate that the combination of E-nose technology and chemometric tools provides a rapid, non-destructive, and cost-effective approach for the classification and characterization of Cistus extracts according to extraction solvent, highlighting its potential application in quality control and process monitoring of plant-derived products. Full article

The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role throughout the plant life cycle and in adaptive responses to environmental stresses. The pyrabactin resistance 1-like (PYR/PYL/RCAR) proteins act as key regulators in the ABA signal transduction pathway by functioning as direct receptors for ABA. Although PYL genes have been identified in a variety of plant species, their evolutionary and structural characteristics in tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) remain elusive. To address this gap, we identified nine SlPYL genes, which were classified into three subfamilies: I (two genes), II (three genes), and III (four genes), and their encoded proteins were predicted to be primarily localized in the cytosol and chloroplast. Structural analysis revealed diverse exon–intron organizations along with five conserved motifs. All identified SlPYLs contained the START domain (PF10604), validating their identity as actual PYL proteins. Prediction of cis-acting regulatory elements in SlPYL’s promoter regions was found to be associated with light responsiveness, hormone signaling, stress responses, and plant growth and development. Prediction of post-translational modification sites indicated that SlPYLs are predominantly phosphorylated and acetylated at serine and lysine residues, respectively. Tertiary structure modeling demonstrated conserved three-dimensional architectures among SlPYL proteins, supporting their functional conservation. Expression profiling revealed that specific SlPYL genes exhibit distinct expression patterns across different tissues (root, leaf, and bud) following ABA treatment, indicating functional diversification. Considering the well-established negative correlation between ABA accumulation and bud outgrowth, the ABA-induced differential expression (3~5-fold) of some SlPYL genes (SlPYL3, SlPYL4, SlPYL7, and SlPYL8), particularly in bud tissues after 24 hpt, suggests a potential role in ABA-mediated suppression of bud outgrowth. However, these functional inferences are primarily based on genome-wide computational analyses and expression profiling and therefore require further experimental validation. Full article