Raising yield potential of wheat. II. Increasing photosynthetic capacity and efficiency

Past increases in yield potential of wheat have largely resulted from improvements in harvest index rather than increased biomass. Further large increases in harvest index are unlikely, but an opportunity exists for increasing productive biomass and harvestable grain. Photosynthetic capacity and eff...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental botany 2011-01, Vol.62 (2), p.453-467
Main Authors: Parry, Martin A.J, Reynolds, Matthew, Salvucci, Michael E, Raines, Christine, Andralojc, P. John, Zhu, Xin-Guang, Price, G. Dean, Condon, Anthony G, Furbank, Robert T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Breeding - methods
C4 photosynthesis
Carbon Dioxide - metabolism
Chloroplasts
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Grains
Kinetics
Photosynthesis
Plant physiology
Plant Proteins - genetics
Plant Proteins - metabolism
Plants
REVIEW PAPER
Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase - genetics
Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase - metabolism
Rice
Triticum - enzymology
Triticum - genetics
Triticum - growth & development
Triticum - metabolism
Vegetation canopies
Wheat
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Past increases in yield potential of wheat have largely resulted from improvements in harvest index rather than increased biomass. Further large increases in harvest index are unlikely, but an opportunity exists for increasing productive biomass and harvestable grain. Photosynthetic capacity and efficiency are bottlenecks to raising productivity and there is strong evidence that increasing photosynthesis will increase crop yields provided that other constraints do not become limiting. Even small increases in the rate of net photosynthesis can translate into large increases in biomass and hence yield, since carbon assimilation is integrated over the entire growing season and crop canopy. This review discusses the strategies to increase photosynthesis that are being proposed by the wheat yield consortium in order to increase wheat yields. These include: selection for photosynthetic capacity and efficiency, increasing ear photosynthesis, optimizing canopy photosynthesis, introducing chloroplast CO₂ pumps, increasing RuBP regeneration, improving the thermal stability of Rubisco activase, and replacing wheat Rubisco with that from other species with different kinetic properties.
ISSN:0022-0957
1460-2431
DOI:10.1093/jxb/erq304