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Transpiration efficiency: new insights into an old story

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/7603/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eru040
10.1093/jxb/eru040
 
Title Transpiration efficiency: new insights into an old story
 
Creator Vadez, V
Kholova, J
Medina, Susan
Kakkera, A
Anderberg, Hanna
 
Subject Plant Physiology
 
Description Producing more food per unit of water has never been as important as it is at present, and the demand for water by
economic sectors other than agriculture will necessarily put a great deal of pressure on a dwindling resource, leading
to a call for increases in the productivity of water in agriculture. This topic has been given high priority in the research
agenda for the last 30 years, but with the exception of a few specific cases, such as water-use-efficient wheat in
Australia, breeding crops for water-use efficiency has yet to be accomplished. Here, we review the efforts to harness
transpiration efficiency (TE); that is, the genetic component of water-use efficiency. As TE is difficult to measure,
especially in the field, evaluations of TE have relied mostly on surrogate traits, although this has most likely resulted in
over-dependence on the surrogates. A new lysimetric method for assessing TE gravimetrically throughout the entire
cropping cycle has revealed high genetic variation in different cereals and legumes. Across species, water regimes,
and a wide range of genotypes, this method has clearly established an absence of relationships between TE and total
water use, which dismisses previous claims that high TE may lead to a lower production potential. More excitingly,
a tight link has been found between these large differences in TE in several crops and attributes of plants that make
them restrict water losses under high vapour-pressure deficits. This trait provides new insight into the genetics of TE,
especially from the perspective of plant hydraulics, probably with close involvement of aquaporins, and opens new
possibilities for achieving genetic gains via breeding focused on this trait. Last but not least, small amounts of water
used in specific periods of the crop cycle, such as during grain filling, may be critical. We assessed the efficiency of
water use at these critical stages.
 
Publisher Oxford University Press
 
Date 2014-03
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/7603/1/J.%20Exp.%20Bot.-2014-Vadez-6141-53.pdf
Vadez, V and Kholova, J and Medina, Susan and Kakkera, A and Anderberg, Hanna (2014) Transpiration efficiency: new insights into an old story. Journal of Experimental Botany, 65 (21). pp. 6141-6153. ISSN 0022-0957