Poster: Metabolic engineering
Abs #
282: Genetic modification of wheat photosynthesis for increased yield
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Presenter: |
Kershanskaya, Olga I., gen_o.kersh@mail.ru |
Authors | Kershanskaya, Olga I. (A) Ku, Maurice S.B. (B) | | Affiliations: |
(A): Institute of Plant Physiology, Genetics and Bioengineering
(B): School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University
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To feed the 8.3 billion people projected to be on this planet at the end of this quarter century, both conventional technology and modern genetic modification of food crops will be required. Manipulation of photosynthetic process in plants for increased photosynthetic capacity is an imporatnt way for crop improvement. Based on our analyses, we have formulated the concept of optimal photosynthetic wheat plant type (OPWPT) and have created the conceptual model of OPWPT with high productivity. Conceptual optimisation model has described the most important characters of photosynthesis at the levels of reaction center, chloroplast, leaf, organ and whole plant, which are all considered essential for wheat improvement. The adoption of this model in traditional crop breeding allowed us to evaluate 30 photosynthetic indices and 11 photosynthetic test systems on high productivity and drought tolerance, to determine four types of wheat production process in south-east Kazakhstan for different environments, and to generate more than 200 genotypes with improved photosynthetic capacity and grain yield.
Conceptual model of OPWPT can demonstrate the important points of photosynthetic parameters for genetic modification in wheat to further increase its productivity. Several advances in technology and establishment of new approaches for genetic modification of photosynthesis in wheat for enhanced grain yield and drought tolerance are discussed: 1. leaf mesophyll protoplast transformation with intact sorghum DNA, 2. sporoplast transformation, 3. use of protoplasts from immature embryos for transformation, 4. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of maize PEPC and PPDK genes, and 5. particle bombardment-mediated microspore transformation.
