Researchers at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, said an intelligent-breeding team, after eight years of
work, identified the first small-peptide signal that senses low temperature
during crop reproductive development and decoded the pollen cold-sensing and
signal-transduction mechanism. The pathway explains how plants mount precise,
on‑demand defenses to protect pollen during short, unpredictable cold snaps,
supporting crop resilience and stable production. The study was published online
in Nature on June 3 (Beijing time).
