Sugar Signals for Heat-Tolerant Crops

Researchers report that sugars produced by photosynthesis help plants sense and respond to daytime heat, not just light-sensitive proteins as previously thought. In Arabidopsis, phyB mediates growth under moderate light but fails at high light, where sugar signaling steps in as a temperature cue. This expands the toolkit for stabilizing growth during heat waves. — It shifts climate adaptation in agriculture toward metabolic‑signaling engineering, influencing biotech priorities and regulatory debates over crop modification.