C4 rice: a challenge for plant phenomics

Date

2009

Authors

Furbank, Robert Thomas
von Caemmerer, Susanne
Sheehy, John
Edwards, Gerald

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

There is now strong evidence that yield potential in rice (Oryza sativa L.) is becoming limited by 'source' capacity, i.e. photosynthetic capacity or efficiency, and hence the ability to fill the large number of grain 'sinks' produced in modern varieties. One solution to this problem is to introduce a more efficient, higher capacity photosynthetic mechanism to rice, the C 4 pathway. A major challenge is identifying and engineering the genes necessary to install C4 photosynthesis in rice. Recently, an international research consortium was established to achieve this aim. Central to the aims of this project is phenotyping large populations of rice and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) mutants for 'C4-ness' to identify C3 plants that have acquired C4 characteristics or revertant C 4 plants that have lost them. This paper describes a variety of plant phenomics approaches to identify these plants and the genes responsible, based on our detailed physiological knowledge of C4 photosynthesis. Strategies to asses the physiological effects of the installation of components of the C4 pathway in rice are also presented.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: Carbon isotope discrimination; Chlorophyll fluorescence; CO 2 compensation point; Compensation points; Photosynthetic efficiency; Chlorophyll; Fluorescence; Genes; Isotopes; Porphyrins; Photosynthesis; C4 plant; carbon isotope; crop improvement; Carbon isotope discrimination; Chlorophyll fluorescence; CO2 compensation point; Kranz anatomy; Photosynthesis; Photosynthetic efficiency

Citation

Source

Functional Plant Biology

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

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2037-12-31
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