Closer vein spacing by ectopic expression of nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat proteins in rice leaves.

Elevated expression of nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat proteins led to closer vein spacing and higher vein density in rice leaves. To feed the growing global population and mitigate the negative effects of climate change, there is a need to improve the photosynthetic capacity and efficiency of major crops such as rice to enhance grain yield potential. Alterations in internal leaf morphology and cellular architecture are needed to underpin some of these improvements.

Natural Diversity in Stomatal Features of Cultivated and Wild Oryza Species.

Background: Stomata in rice control a number of physiological processes by regulating gas and water exchange between the atmosphere and plant tissues. The impact of the structural diversity of these micropores on its conductance level is an important area to explore before introducing stomatal traits into any breeding program in order to increase photosynthesis and crop yield. Therefore, an intensive measurement of structural components of stomatal complex (SC) of twenty three Oryza species spanning the primary, secondary and tertiary gene pools of rice has been conducted.

Increasing Leaf Vein Density via Mutagenesis in Rice Results in an Enhanced Rate of Photosynthesis, Smaller Cell Sizes and Can Reduce Interveinal Mesophyll Cell Number.

Improvements to leaf photosynthetic rates of crops can be achieved by targeted manipulation of individual component processes, such as the activity and properties of RuBisCO or photoprotection. This study shows that simple forward genetic screens of mutant populations can also be used to rapidly generate photosynthesis variants that are useful for breeding. Increasing leaf vein density (concentration of vascular tissue per unit leaf area) has important implications for plant hydraulic properties and assimilate transport.

The Evolutionary Basis of Naturally Diverse Rice Leaves Anatomy.

Rice contains genetically and ecologically diverse wild and cultivated species that show a wide variation in plant and leaf architecture. A systematic characterization of leaf anatomy is essential in understanding the dynamics behind such diversity. Therefore, leaf anatomies of 24 Oryza species spanning 11 genetically diverse rice genomes were studied in both lateral and longitudinal directions and possible evolutionary trends were examined.