{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T06:02:46Z","timestamp":1789970566135,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789948800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Tension wood (TW) is a graviresponsive xylem tissue exclusive to angiosperm trees that counteracts gravitational stress. Its hallmark is a gelatinous layer (G-layer) in fiber secondary walls, rich in cellulose and low in lignin. Although kinesins mediate microtubule\u2013microfilament crosstalk, their role in G-layer biogenesis during gravistimulation is unclear in woody angiosperms. We studied two kinesin paralogs,\n                    <jats:italic>PalKCH1<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>PalKCH2<\/jats:italic>\n                    , in\n                    <jats:italic>Populus alba<\/jats:italic>\n                    var.\n                    <jats:italic>pyramidalis<\/jats:italic>\n                    during TW development. Both belong to the Group I KCH clade, possessing a kinesin motor domain and a calponin-homology (CH) domain. Multi-omic profiling showed preferential expression in xylem fibers and strong gravistimulation-induced transcription. CRISPR\/Cas9 single and double knockout mutants showed normal xylem under upright growth, but responded to gravitational stress with reduced stem bending, narrower TW regions, and fewer G-layer fibers; double mutants were more affected, suggesting dosage dependence. Chemical assays showed that mutants retained the cellulose-rich, lignin-poor TW signature, but the changes were attenuated compared to wild-type. Transcriptomic analysis of double mutants revealed suppression of genes involved in microtubule dynamics, vesicular trafficking, cell wall remodeling, reduced\n                    <jats:italic>PalWOX4A<\/jats:italic>\n                    expression, and repressed cell cycle pathways. Thus,\n                    <jats:italic>PalKCH1<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>PalKCH2<\/jats:italic>\n                    are required for TW formation, likely via cytoskeletal signaling, and represent high-value targets for improving wood quality in\n                    <jats:italic>Populus<\/jats:italic>\n                    .\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1942251","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T05:35:07Z","timestamp":1789968907000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["PalKCH1 and PalKCH2 are required for tension wood formation and gelatinous layer deposition in Populus"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Jianglong","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kunjing","family":"Qu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rui","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ningning","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University","place":["Lanzhou, Gansu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1972","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btp348","article-title":"TrimAl: a tool for automated alignment trimming in large-scale phylogenetic analyses","volume":"25","author":"Capella-Guti\u00e9rrez","year":"2009","journal-title":"Bioinformatics"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1733","DOI":"10.1016\/j.molp.2023.09.010","article-title":"TBtools-II: a \u201cone for all, all for one\u201d bioinformatics platform for biological big-data mining","volume":"16","author":"Chen","year":"2023","journal-title":"Mol. 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