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Title: EVALUATION OF LEAF AND WHOLE CANOPY PHOTOSYNTHESIS OF TRANSGENIC RICE OVEREXPRESSING MAIZE C4 PHOTOSYNTHETIC ENZYMES

Author
item Baker, Jeffrey
item KU, M. - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV WA
item MURPHY, L. - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV WA
item Reddy, Vangimalla

Submitted to: Remote Sensing and Modeling Applications for Natural Resource Management
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/15/2002
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: To provide food security for the demands of a rapidly growing population in Asia, rice grain yields in the year 2050 will need to be increased by 50 percent over current levels. Numerical and modeling studies of the rice crop's eco-physiology and responses to environment, indicate that this goal is unlikely to be achieved with the C3 photosynthetic pathway employed by rice. In an effort to try to improve photosynthesis in rice, we evaluated recently developed transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) lines that have been engineered to over-express specific maize (Zea mays L.) C4 photosynthetic enzymes. The rice lines that we tested include: WT (the control or parent 'Wild Type' cultivar 'Kitaake'), PEPC (overexpressing maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase), PPDK (overexpressing maize pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase), NADP-ME (overexpressing rice NADP-malic enzyme) and PEPC/PPDK (simultaneously overexpressing the two maize enzymes). We measured leaf-level photosynthesis as well as continuously monitored season-long, whole-canopy, photosynthesis in the recently developed USDA- ARS, Alternate Crops and Systems Laboratory SPAR (Soil-Plant-Atmosphere- Research) facility at Beltsville, MD.