Towards Phosphorus Use Efficiency in Wheat; An Interdiciplinary Research

农业对环境的影响一直是农业和环境科学界关注的主要问题。农业的扩张被认为导致了生物多样性的丧失、栖息地的丧失和对土壤条件的不利影响。农业的集约化可能造成化学肥料和农药造成的环境污染、水的退化和能源使用的增加。例如，自20世纪60年代以来，全球人类对合成氮肥的使用量增加了9倍，而对磷肥的需求增加了两倍。因此，满足世界未来的粮食安全需求，同时在减少农业对环境的不利影响方面取得进展，是一项全球性挑战。***小麦（Triticum asetivum L.）是世界范围内的重要作物，安大略省的年产量为190万吨，对安大略省和加拿大的经济做出了重要贡献。考虑到安大略省90%以上的小麦作物是冬季种植的，因此它作为种植系统的一个组成部分发挥着非常重要的作用，与其他作物轮作，这不仅提供了种植系统的多样性，而且在冬季提供了土壤覆盖。***磷是植物生长发育必需的、不可替代的大量营养物质之一，是作物生产的重要依赖。磷肥是由磷岩制造的，磷岩是一种有限资源，估计在未来50年到最多400年内，在全球范围内将会耗尽。因此，需要大幅减少磷损失并避免未来的磷危机是一个重要的全球关注问题。提高磷利用效率（PUE）的作物品种对磷资源的可持续利用有重要贡献。本项目将尝试采用多学科的方法，为更好地理解小麦PUE的机制做出贡献。这些机制可能包括，但不限于，增加磷的根结构，根渗出物，如磷酸酶，有助于从稀缺的可用池中开采磷，以及改善PUE，以产生更多的干物质和单位磷吸收产量。本研究将1)研究和解剖根系形态性状，并确定影响高PUE的简单和可遗传性状；2)开发与PUE相关的生理和形态性状的改进表型策略；3)在磷利用率有限的实际田间条件下确定优越表型；4)确定小麦基因组中有助于磷有效利用的区域。5)鉴定和表征候选基因在鉴定的基因组区域的表达。* * * * * * * *

The environmental impacts of agriculture have been a major concern among the agricultural and environmental scientific communities. The expansion of agriculture is thought to have resulted in loss of biodiversity, loss of habitat and adverse impact on soil condition. The intensification of agriculture may contribute to environmental pollution by chemical fertilizers and pesticides, degradation of water, and increased energy use. As an example since the 1960s, human use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has increased 9 fold, globally, while demand for phosphorus fertilizers has tripled. Therefore, meeting the world's future food security needs, while making progress towards reducing the adverse environmental impacts of agriculture is a global challenge.***Wheat (Triticum asetivum L.) is an important crop, world-wide, and with 1.9 million metric tonnes of annual production in Ontario, an important contributor to Ontario and Canadian economy. Considering that more than 90 % of the wheat crop in Ontario is winter-grown, it therefore plays a very important role as an integral part of the cropping system, in rotation with other crops, which not only offers diversity in the cropping system but also provides soil cover during the winter.***Phosphorus is among the essential and un-substitutable macro-nutrients for plant growth and development, on which crop production is heavily dependent. Phosphorus fertilizers are manufactured from phosphorus rock which is a finite resource, estimated to be depleting, on a global scale, in the next 50 to a maximum of 400 years. Therefore, the need to significantly reduce phosphorus losses and to avert a future phosphorus crisis is an important global concern. Varieties of crops with improved Phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) are believed to make a significant contribution to the sustainable use of phosphorus resources. This project will attempt to take a multi-disciplinary approach to contribute to a better understanding of mechanisms of PUE in wheat. These mechanisms may involve, but are not limited to root structures that increase accusation of phosphorus, root exudates such as phosphatases that assist in mining phosphorus from the sparingly available pools, and improved PUE to produce more dry matter and yield per unit of phosphorus uptake. This research will 1) study and dissect root morphological traits and identify simple and heritable traits influencing higher PUE, 2) develop improved phenotyping strategies for physiological and morphological traits related to PUE, 3) identify superior phenotypes under realistic field conditions with limited phosphorus availability, 4) identify regions in the wheat genome that contribute to an fficient use of phosphorus, and 5) identify and characterize the expression of candidate genes in the identified genomic regions. ********