Physiological characteristics of a functional stay-green rice “SNU-SG1” during grain-filling period

Abstract

Functional stay-green has been regarded as a promising characteristic to be introduced for improving rice yield potential. A functional stay-green rice “SNU-SG1” that was identified from japonica rice collections was compared with two regular high-yielding rice cultivars (HYVs) for the temporal change of leaf chlorophyll, soluble protein, and root activity, and nitrogen accumulation and remobilization during the grain-filling period. SNU-SG1 had slower decreasing rate and maintained higher concentration of chlorophyll and soluble protein in upper four leaves during the grain-filling period than HYVs “Suweon490” and “Andabyeo”, revealing a typical stay-green characteristic. Even though SNU-SG1 remobilized almost the same proportion of N accumulated before heading as HYVs to grain, it maintained much higher leaf N concentration due to the significantly higher N accumulation that is ascribable to the higher root activity sustenance during grain-filling period. The functional stay-green trait of SNU-SG1 seems to stem not only from the genetic control preventing chlorophyll degradation but also from the higher capacity to absorb N from soil due to the sustained strong root activity during grain-filling period. SNU-SG1 exhibited higher crop growth rate during late grain-filling period than HYVs, resulting in higher grain-filling percentage and non-structural carbohydrate re-accumulation in the stem at the final stage of grain filling. It is concluded that SNU-SG1 has a promising trait “functional stay-green” contributable to rice yield potential improvement through the improved grain filling.