Photosynthetica, 2015 (vol. 53), issue 4

Photosynthetica 2015, 53(4):519-526 | DOI: 10.1007/s11099-015-0147-9

Low contribution of photosynthesis and water-use efficiency to improvement of grain yield in Chinese wheat

X. Chen1, M. D. Hao2,*
1 College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling Shaanxi Province, China
2 Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, China

The contribution of photosynthesis to yield improvement is important to know in order to determine future breeding strategies. The objectives of this study were to determine the contribution of photosynthesis and water-use efficiency (WUE) to grain yield improvement of facultative wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars on the Loess Plateau of China released between 1937 and 2004. The grain yield has increased nearly sevenfold during this period. Surprisingly, these increases were not correlated with the rate of photosynthesis per unit of leaf area when the cultivars were planted and managed in the same environment. The increases were also not correlated with transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, or WUE, except at the jointing stage. The total increase in photosynthesis may be due to enlargement of photosynthetic area and photosynthesis duration. The grain yield was positively correlated with the number of grains per unit of area (r = 0.855, P<0.05), harvest index (HI) (r = 0.885, P<0.01), and thousand-grain mass (r = 0.879, P<0.01). The increase in grain yield was limited by the grain number and the grain size (sink-limited) and the yield improvement was attributed to a rise in HI over the last 70 years in a highland agricultural system in China.

Keywords: agronomic traits; flag leaf; grain number per area unit; highland agricultural system; jointing stage; rate of photosynthesis per leaf area unit; stomatal conductance; thousand-grain mass; transpiration rate; water-use efficiency; winter wheat

Received: August 29, 2014; Accepted: April 14, 2015; Published: December 1, 2015Show citation

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Chen, X., & Hao, M.D. (2015). Low contribution of photosynthesis and water-use efficiency to improvement of grain yield in Chinese wheat. Photosynthetica, 53(4), 519-526. doi: 10.1007/s11099-015-0147-9.
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