TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving crop yield and resilience through optimization of photosynthesis
T2 - Panacea or pipe dream?
AU - Araus, José L.
AU - Sanchez-Bragado, Ruth
AU - Vicente, Rubén
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the support of the Spanish project PID2019-106650RB-C21 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci?n. J.LA acknowledges support from the Instituci? Catalana de Investigaci? i Estudis Avan?ats (ICREA) Academia, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain. RV acknowledges the support of the Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia through the R&D Unit, UIDB/04551/2020 (GREEN-IT - Bioresources for Sustainability), Portugal.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected].
PY - 2021/5/18
Y1 - 2021/5/18
N2 - Increasing the speed of breeding to enhance crop productivity and adaptation to abiotic stresses is urgently needed. The perception that a second Green Revolution should be implemented is widely established within the scientific community and among stakeholders. In recent decades, different alternatives have been proposed for increasing crop yield through manipulation of leaf photosynthetic efficiency. However, none of these has delivered practical or relevant outputs. Indeed, the actual increases in photosynthetic rates are not expected to translate into yield increases beyond 10-15%. Furthermore, instantaneous rates of leaf photosynthesis are not necessarily the reference target for research. Yield is the result of canopy photosynthesis, understood as the contribution of laminar and non-laminar organs over time, within which concepts such as canopy architecture, stay-green, or non-laminar photosynthesis need to be taken into account. Moreover, retrospective studies show that photosynthetic improvements have been more common at the canopy level. Nevertheless, it is crucial to place canopy photosynthesis in the context of whole-plant functioning, which includes sink-source balance and transport of photoassimilates, and the availability and uptake of nutrients, such as nitrogen in particular. Overcoming this challenge will only be feasible if a multiscale crop focus combined with a multidisciplinary scientific approach is adopted.
AB - Increasing the speed of breeding to enhance crop productivity and adaptation to abiotic stresses is urgently needed. The perception that a second Green Revolution should be implemented is widely established within the scientific community and among stakeholders. In recent decades, different alternatives have been proposed for increasing crop yield through manipulation of leaf photosynthetic efficiency. However, none of these has delivered practical or relevant outputs. Indeed, the actual increases in photosynthetic rates are not expected to translate into yield increases beyond 10-15%. Furthermore, instantaneous rates of leaf photosynthesis are not necessarily the reference target for research. Yield is the result of canopy photosynthesis, understood as the contribution of laminar and non-laminar organs over time, within which concepts such as canopy architecture, stay-green, or non-laminar photosynthesis need to be taken into account. Moreover, retrospective studies show that photosynthetic improvements have been more common at the canopy level. Nevertheless, it is crucial to place canopy photosynthesis in the context of whole-plant functioning, which includes sink-source balance and transport of photoassimilates, and the availability and uptake of nutrients, such as nitrogen in particular. Overcoming this challenge will only be feasible if a multiscale crop focus combined with a multidisciplinary scientific approach is adopted.
KW - Cmetabolism
KW - Canopy photosynthesis
KW - genetic advance
KW - leaf photosynthesis
KW - mesophyll conductance
KW - non-laminar photosynthesis
KW - Rubisco
KW - stomatal conductance
KW - yield
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108666388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/jxb/erab097
DO - 10.1093/jxb/erab097
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85108666388
SN - 0022-0957
VL - 72
SP - 3936
EP - 3955
JO - Journal of Experimental Botany
JF - Journal of Experimental Botany
IS - 11
ER -