IWYP Call 2: Transforming yield through source-sink synchronisation

作物产量的最大提高可能来自于优化和协调整个植物源库系统，以充分实现光合潜力作为粮食产量。海藻糖6-磷酸（T6 P）的研究表明，T6 P在协调作物源库活动中起着关键作用。最近新的化学生物学已被用于修饰T6 P，使得其可用于筛选产量性状。在小麦灌浆早期使用T6 P前体作为化学喷雾剂刺激籽粒中的淀粉合成，使淀粉含量、籽粒大小和总产量增加高达20%。值得注意的是，这是伴随着增加光合作用在旗叶由于增强的需求所创造的水槽。这表明光合潜力可能被库限制所掩盖。除了对晶粒尺寸的影响外，T6 P还影响晶粒数的起始和定型。通过分析遗传多样性高产种质的响应，T6 P前体将被用作真实光合潜力、籽粒数量和大小潜力以及受源和库活动协调影响的生物量和收获指数的智能筛选。将进行全基因组关联作图以发现与高源和库相关的基因组区域，并将鉴定数量性状基因座。鉴于海藻糖磷酸磷酸酶基因与作物产量相关的最新实例，还将关注海藻糖途径基因中的SNP作为潜在性状的可能遗传变体。IWYP中心将利用其成果设计战略杂交，最大限度地提高源和库的遗传互补性，通过国际小麦改良网络向发达国家和发展中国家的育种者提供高产。

The greatest improvements in crop yields are likely to come from optimising and coordinating the whole plant source-sink system to fully realise photosynthetic potential as grain yield. Emerging research on trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) has shown that T6P plays a key role in coordinating source and sink activities in crops. Recent novel chemical biology has been used to modify T6P in such a way that it can be used to screen for yield traits. Using T6P precursors as a chemical spray to wheat during early grain filling stimulates starch synthesis in grain increasing starch content, grain size and overall yield by up to 20%. Significantly, this is accompanied by increased photosynthesis in flag leaves due to the enhanced demand created by the sink. This shows that photosynthetic potential may be masked by sink limitations. In addition to its effect on grain size T6P influences initiation and setting of grain number. Through analysis of the response of genetically diverse high-yielding germplasm, T6P precursor will be used as a smart screen for true photosynthetic potential, grain number and size potential as well as biomass and harvest index affected by the harmonisation of source and sink activity. Genome wide association mapping will be performed to discover genomic regions associated with high source and sink and quantitative trait loci will be identified. Given recent examples of association of trehalose phosphate phosphatase genes with crop yield attention will also be given to finding SNPs in trehalose pathway genes as likely genetic variants underlying traits. Outputs will be used at the IWYP Hub to design strategic crosses that maximise genetic complementarity of both source and sink for high yield delivered to breeders in developed and developing countries via the International Wheat Improvement Network.