Volume 7: Redesigning Rice Photosynthesis to Increase Yield, 1st Edition

Description

Rice yields need to increase in order to keep pace with the growing population of Asia and to alleviate hunger and poverty. There appears, however, to be a biophysical limit associated with conventional photosynthetic pathways. The research presented in this book aims at understanding how the rice plant's photosynthetic pathway could be redesigned to overcome current yield limits. The factors controlling yield are discussed from the agronomic to the molecular level. Prospects for improving rice photosynthesis include using genetic engineering to convert rice into a C4 plant.

The various chapters in this book deal with photosynthesis; a comparison of C3 and C4 pathways; genes physiology and function, and also discuss this in the broader context of economic consequences of yield improvements for poverty, the molecular genetics of photosynthesis, and ecophysiological and evolutionary perspectives of photosynthesis in wetlands.

Researchers on rice, photosynthesis, agronomy, genetic engineering, and food policy will find much of interest in this book.

Redesigning Rice Photosynthesis to Increase Yield, 1st Edition

Foreword

Perspectives

The contribution of rice research to poverty alleviation
(D. Dawe).

C3 versus C4 photosynthesis in rice: ecophysiological perspectives
(R.F. Sage).

Photosynthesis, Models, Structure, and Growth

Limits to yield for C3 and C4 rice: an agronomist's view
(J.E. Sheehy).

Would C4 rice produce more biomass than C3 rice?
(J.R. Evans, S. von Caemmerer).

Will increased photosynthetic efficiency lead to increased yield in rice?
(T.D. Sharkey, M.M. Laporte, E.L. Kruger).

C4 rice: What are the lessons from developmental and molecular studies?
(W.C. Taylor).

C3 and C4 Pathways

Requirements for the CO2-concentrating mechanism in C4 plants relative to
limitations on carbon assimilation in rice
(G.E. Edwards, O. Kiirats, A. Laisk, T.W. Okita).

Overcoming barriers: CO2-concentrating mechanisms and C4 metabolism in relation to transport
(R.C. Leegood).

C4 photosynthesis in rice: some lessons from studies of C3 photosynthesis in field-grown rice
(P. Horton, E.H. Murchie).

Performance of a potential C4 rice: overview from quantum yield to grain yield
(P.L. Mitchell, J.E. Sheehy).
Genes, Physiology, and Function

How to express some C4 photosynthesis genes at high levels in rice
(M. Matsuoka, H. Fukayama, H. Tsuchida, M. Nomura, S. Agarie, M.S.B. Ku, M. Miyao).

Influence of carbon-nitrogen balance on productivity of C3 plants and effect of high expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in transgenic rice
(M. Osaki, T. Shinano).

Photosynthetic performance of transgenic rice plants overexpressing maize C4 photosynthesis enzymes
(M.S.B. Ku, D. Cho, U. Ranade, T.-P. Hsu, X. Li, D.-M. Jiao, J. Ehleringer, M. Miyao, M. Matsuoka).
Rice: Practical Issues

Strategies for increasing the yield potential of rice
(G.S. Khush).

Single-leaf and canopy photosynthesis of rice
(S. Peng).

Future intensification of irrigated rice systems
(A. Dobermann).

Rate-limiting steps in nitrogen acquisition by rice in flooded soil
(G.J.D. Kirk).

Reflections

Genetic modification and agriculture
(P.L. Mitchell, J.E. Sheehy).

Discussion: opportunities for redesigning rice photosynthesis
(P.L. Mitchell, J.E. Sheehy).

Index