INVESTIGADORES
MIRALLES Daniel Julio
artículos
Título:
Fruiting efficiency: an alternative trait to further rise wheat yield
Autor/es:
SLAFER GA; ELIA; SAVIN R; GARCIA G; TERRILE I; FERRANTE A; MIRALLES D J; GONZALEZ F.
Revista:
Food and Energy Security
Editorial:
Wiley
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015 p. 1 - 18
Resumen:
Further improvements in wheat yields are critical, for which increases in grain
number would be required. In the recent past, higher grain number was achieved
through increased growth of the juvenile spikes before anthesis, due to the
reduction in stem growth. As current cultivars have already an optimum height,
alternatives must be identifi ed for further increasing grain number. One of them
is increasing fruiting effi ciency (grains set per unit of spike dry weight at anthesis).
Fruiting effi ciency is the fi nal outcome of the fate of fl oret development
and differences in this trait within modern cultivars would be related to higher
survival of fl oret primordia. Then there are two alternative physiological pathways
to improve fruiting effi ciency by allowing a normal development of most
vulnerable fl oret primordia: an increased allocation of assimilates for the developing
fl orets before anthesis, or reduced demand of the fl orets for maintaining
their normal development. Both alternatives may be possible, and it might be
critical to recognize which of them is the actual cause of differences in fruiting
effi ciency. When considering this trait in breeding we must be aware of potential
trade- offs and therefore it must be avoided that increases in fruiting effi ciency
be constitutively related to decreases in either spike dry weight at anthesis or
grain weight. In this review we described fruiting effi ciency and its physiological
bases, analyzing genetic variation and considering potential drawbacks that must
be taken into account to avoid increases in fruiting effi ciency being compensated
by other traits