Engineering the rice leaf for improved photosynthesis

如果我们要实现到2050年养活预计的90亿世界人口所需的作物产量的显著增加，提高光合效率已被确定为少数剩余的可利用的性状之一。大米是许多贫困人口的主食，因此供应的任何下降都会对人道主义产生重大影响。认识到这一点，国际上正在进行一项重大的研究工作，以改变水稻的光合效率。在比尔和梅林达·盖茨基金会的大量资助下，C4水稻联盟（由该项目的非学术CASE支持者Paul Quick协调）正在确定实现这一重大挑战所需的特性。一个新出现的问题是水稻叶片发育遵循一个特征性的时间轨迹，这意味着工程化的靶组织在需要工程化的确切发育阶段往往变得难以操纵。该项目的目的是延长水稻叶片成熟期，开发一种更适合工程改进光合作用的叶片底盘。

mproving photosynthetic efficiency has been identified as one of the few remaining traits for exploitation if we are to achieve the significant increases in crop yield required to feed the projected 9 billion world population by 2050. Rice is the staple food for many impoverished people so that any decline in supply has a major humanitatrian impact. In recognition of this, a major international research effort to transform rice photosynthetic efficiency is underway. With significant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the C4 rice consortium (co-ordinated by Paul Quick, non-academic CASE supporter on this project) is identifying the traits required to achieve this grand challenge. One of the emerging issues is that rice leaf development follows a characteristic temporal trajectory, meaning that the target tissue for engineering often becomes recalcitrant to manipulation at the exact developmental phase when engineering is required. The aim of this project is to prolong the phase of rice leaf maturation, developing a leaf chassis more amenable to engineering improved photosynthesis.