Photosynthetic activity of reproductive organs

Brazel, Ailbhe Jane; Ó’Maoiléidigh, Diarmuid S.

doi:10.1093/jxb/erz033

Cited by 58 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 188 publications

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“…Fruits are sink tissues that need to import carbohydrates from photosynthetically active source tissues (Blanke and Lenz, 1989;Gallardo et al, 2008;Cocaliadis et al, 2014). Although green leaves are generally considered as the main sources of photosynthate production, numerous sources of evidence suggest that reproductive organs can capture light energy to perform photosynthesis and that this is an important additional contribution to carbon acquisition and yield (Whiley et al, 1992;Aschan and Pfanz, 2003;Hu et al, 2012;Hua et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2018;Brazel and Ó'Maoiléidigh, 2019). In the present study, the dry weight of the fruit was the sink capacity, and the photosynthesis of leaves and fruits were the sources.…”

Section: The Enlargement Of Pp Fruits May Due To the Enhanced Photosymentioning

confidence: 66%

Photosynthetic Mechanisms of Metaxenia Responsible for Enlargement of Carya cathayensis Fruits at Late Growth Stages

Huang

Zhang

et al. 2020

Front. Plant Sci.

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Fruits of hickory (Carya cathayensis) are larger and their peel is greener after interspecific pollination by pecan (Carya illinoinensis; later pp fruits) than after intraspecific pollination by hickory (later ph fruits). Previous studies have found little genetic differences between offspring and their maternal parent, indicating that the observed trait differences between pp and ph fruits are due to metaxenia. Fruit development depends on the amount of photosynthetic assimilate available. Since there is no difference in photosynthesis of the associated leaves between pp and ph fruits, the larger size of the pp fruits might be attributed to changes in fruit photosynthesis caused by the different pollen sources. To elucidate to the photosynthetic mechanisms behind the metaxenia effect on fruit development in hickory, the effects of intraspecific and interspecific pollination regimes were examined in the present study. We observed the photosynthetic capacity in the peel of fruits and the related ecophysiological and morphological traits of both ph and pp fruits over a period of 120 days after pollination. Significant differences in the appearance and dry weight between ph and pp fruits were observed at 50 days after pollination (DAP). More than 70% of dry matter accumulation of the fruits was completed during 60-120 DAP, while the true photosynthetic rate of the associated leaves significantly decreased by about 50% during the same period. In several cell layers of the peel, the number of chloroplasts per cell was significantly higher in pp than in ph fruits. Similarly, the ribulose 1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase (Rubisco) activity, the total chlorophyll content, and the nitrogen content were all significantly higher in pp than in ph fruits during all growth stages; and all of these physiological quantities were positively correlated with the gross photosynthetic rate of the fruits. We conclude that the enhanced photosynthetic capacity of pp fruits contributes to their fast dry matter accumulation and oil formation. This result will provide a theoretical basis for improving hickory fruit yields in practical cultivation.

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Section: The Enlargement Of Pp Fruits May Due To the Enhanced Photosymentioning

confidence: 66%

Photosynthetic Mechanisms of Metaxenia Responsible for Enlargement of Carya cathayensis Fruits at Late Growth Stages

Huang

Zhang

et al. 2020

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…Reproductive organs of cereal crops have been shown been photosynthetically active, and photosynthesis in ear of wheat and barley has attracted great research interest [12,13]. Current high-yield rice cultivars usually has much bigger ears with numerous spikelets compared with wheat or barley.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the ear surface areas were 1.1-5.5 folds greater than that of the corresponding flag leaves in wheat and barley [6]; 4) reproductive organs tend to senesce later than leaves, especially under adverse conditions such as drought [10,11]. Due to these reasons, photosynthesis of reproductive organs gained more attraction in recent years (see review in [12,13]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An in situ approach for characterizing photosynthetic gas exchange of rice panicle

Chang

Song

Zhao

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Photosynthesis of reproductive organs in C 3 cereals is generally regarded as important to crop yield. Whereas, photosynthetic characteristics of reproductive organs are much less understood as compared to leaf photosynthesis, mainly due to methodological limitations. To date, many indirect methods were developed to study photosynthesis of reproductive organs and its contribution to grain yield, such as shading, application of herbicides or photosynthetic measurement of excised organs or tissues, which might be intrusive and cause biases. Thus, a robust and in situ approach needs to be developed. Results: Here we report the development of a custom-built panicle chamber (P-chamber), which can be connected to a standard infrared gas analyzer to study photosynthetic/respiratory rate of a rice panicle. With this P-chamber, we measured photosynthetic characteristics of panicles for seven high-yielding elite japonica , japonica-indica hybrid and indica rice cultivars. Results show that, 1) rice panicle is photosynthetically active during grain filling, and there are substantial inter-cultivar variations in panicle photosynthetic and respiratory rates, both for a whole panicle and on a single spikelet basis; 2) among the seven testing cultivars, light saturated whole-panicle gross photosynthetic rates at early grain filling stage are 17 – 54 nmol s -1 , which are estimated to be 20-38% of the corresponding flag leaves; 3) rice panicle photosynthesis has higher apparent CO 2 compensation point, light compensation point and apparent CO 2 saturation point, as compared to that of a typical leaf; 4) there is a strong and significant positive correlation between gross photosynthetic rate at early grain filling stage on a single spikelet basis and grain setting rate at harvest (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.93, p -value < 0.0001). Conclusions: Overall, the P-Chamber can be used as a tool to study in situ photosynthetic characteristics of irregular non-foliar plant organs, which is a relatively less explored area in current cereal breeding community.

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“…the ear surface areas were 1.1-5.5 folds greater than that of the corresponding ag leaves in wheat and barley [6]; 4) reproductive organs tend to senesce later than leaves, especially under adverse conditions such as drought [10,11]. Due to these reasons, photosynthesis of reproductive organs gained more and more attraction in recent years (see reviews in [12][13][14][15]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An in situ approach to characterizing photosynthetic gas exchange of rice panicle

Chang

Song

Zhao

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Photosynthesis of reproductive organs in C3 cereals is generally regarded as important to crop yield. Whereas, photosynthetic characteristics of reproductive organs are much less understood as compared to leaf photosynthesis, mainly due to methodological limitations. To date, many indirect methods have been developed to study photosynthesis of reproductive organs and its contribution to grain yield, such as organ shading, application of herbicides and photosynthetic measurement of excised organs or tissues, which might be intrusive and cause biases. Thus, a robust and in situ approach needs to be developed.Results: Here we report the development of a custom-built panicle photosynthesis chamber (P-chamber), which can be connected to standard infrared gas analyzers to study photosynthetic/respiratory rate of a rice panicle. With the P-chamber, we measured panicle photosynthetic characteristics of seven high-yielding elite japonica, japonica-indica hybrid and indica rice cultivars. Results show that, 1) rice panicle is photosynthetically active during grain filling, and there are substantial inter-cultivar variations in panicle photosynthetic and respiratory rates, no matter on a whole panicle basis, on an area basis or on a single spikelet basis; 2) among the seven testing cultivars, whole-panicle gross photosynthetic rates are 17 – 54 nmol s-1 5 days after heading under photon flux density (PFD) of 2000 μmol (photons) m-2 s-1, which represent some 20-38% of that of the corresponding flag leaves; 3) rice panicle photosynthesis has higher apparent CO2 compensation point, light compensation point and apparent CO2 saturation point, as compared to that of a typical leaf; 4) there is a strong and significant positive correlation between gross photosynthetic rate 5 days after heading on a single spikelet basis and grain setting rate at harvest (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.93, p-value < 0.0001). Conclusions: Rice panicle gross photosynthesis is significant, has great natural variation, and plays an underappreciated role in grain yield formation. The P-Chamber can be used as a tool to study in situ photosynthetic characteristics of irregular non-foliar plant organs, such as ears, culms, leaf sheaths, fruits and branches, which is a relatively less explored area in current cereal breeding community.

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Photosynthetic activity of reproductive organs

Cited by 58 publications

References 188 publications

Photosynthetic Mechanisms of Metaxenia Responsible for Enlargement of Carya cathayensis Fruits at Late Growth Stages

Photosynthetic Mechanisms of Metaxenia Responsible for Enlargement of Carya cathayensis Fruits at Late Growth Stages

An in situ approach for characterizing photosynthetic gas exchange of rice panicle

An in situ approach to characterizing photosynthetic gas exchange of rice panicle

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