Abstract
Artificial domestication and improvement of the majority of crops began approximately 10,000 years ago, in different parts of the world, to achieve high productivity, good quality, and widespread adaptability. It was initiated from a phenotype-based selection by local farmers and developed to current biotechnology-based breeding to feed over 7 billion people. For most cereal crops, yield relates to grain production, which could be enhanced by increasing grain number and weight. Grain number is typically determined during inflorescence development. Many mutants and genes for inflorescence development have already been characterized in cereal crops. Therefore, optimization of such genes could fine-tune yield-related traits, such as grain number. With the rapidly advancing genome-editing technologies and understanding of yield-related traits, knowledge-driven breeding by design is becoming a reality. This review introduces knowledge about inflorescence yield-related traits in cereal crops, focusing on rice, maize, and wheat. Next, emerging genome-editing technologies and recent studies that apply this technology to engineer crop yield improvement by targeting inflorescence development are reviewed. These approaches promise to usher in a new era of breeding practice.
Highlights
Introduction and JaeYean KimThe global population is expected to increase to 9.2 billion in 2050, and agricultural production needs to increase by about 70 percent from current levels to meet the increased food demand, as predicted by Food and Agriculture Organization
Recent studies suggest that we can create new beneficial alleles by genome editing to optimize the expression or function of these genes. Some of these new alleles may have a larger effect than natural alleles [16,17,18,19,20]. These findings suggest that applying the knowledge of crop inflorescence development can help to engineer crop yield improvement, and usher in a new era of breeding practice
We focus on crop inflorescence development in rice, wheat and maize (Figure 1), and how to use this knowledge to improve yield by increasing grain number
Summary
The global population is expected to increase to 9.2 billion in 2050, and agricultural production needs to increase by about 70 percent from current levels to meet the increased food demand, as predicted by Food and Agriculture Organization In the past century, domesticated crops underwent improvement to achieve high productivity and widespread adaptability, by pyramiding beneficial mutations and recombinants in key genes [5]. Adopting new technologies, such as hybrid breeding, high-yielding dwarf wheat and rice varieties, and genetic modification by transformation, the grain yield of cereal crops has risen steadily [4,5,6]. We focus on crop inflorescence development in rice, wheat and maize (Figure 1), and how to use this knowledge to improve yield by increasing grain number.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
