Manipulation of photosynthetic carbon metabolism in wheat to improve yield

确保粮食安全是一项重大挑战，因为预计未来20年世界粮食产量需要增加40%，到2050年需要增加70%（粮农组织预测）。显然，迫切需要在不增加肥料或水投入的情况下，开发出单位面积土地产量更高的作物。本研究旨在验证以下假设：1)利用现有的光合能力变异可以增加现代小麦品种的光合作用和总生物量；2)基因调控光合碳代谢可提高作物光合性能，提高产量、氮利用效率和资源利用效率。我们将利用碳同位素鉴别、气体分析和生化分析相结合的方法从一系列来源中筛选现有的小麦种质，以鉴定具有改善光合特性的植物，用于未来的育种计划。我们还将生产SBPase和Rubisco水平改变的转基因小麦植株。将对所获得的转基因品系进行详细的生理和分子分析，以确定光合参数对温室栽培植物生长的影响。

Ensuring food security is a major challenge given the projected need to increase world food production by 40% in the next 20 years and 70% by 2050 (FAO forecasts). There is clearly an urgent need to develop crop plants that yield higher outputs per unit area of land, without having to increase inputs of fertiliser or water. The aims of this research proposal are to test the hypotheses that: 1) The existing variation in photosynthetic capacity can be exploited to increase photosynthesis and total biomass of modern wheat cultivars; and 2) Genetic manipulation of photosynthetic carbon metabolism can lead to enhanced photosynthetic performance in crop plants and result in higher yields, increased nitrogen use efficiency and increased resource-use efficiency. We will screen existing wheat germplasm from a range of sources using a combination of carbon isotope discrimination, gas analysis and biochemical assays to identify plants with improved photosynthetic characteristics for use in future breeding programmes. We will also produce transgenic wheat plants with altered levels of SBPase and Rubisco. A detailed physiological and molecular analysis of the resulting transgenic lines will be carried out to determine the impact of photosynthetic parameters on growth in greenhouse grown plants.