The potential for C<sub>4</sub> rice.
2010
Liu Zheng | Li RunZhi
C<sub>3</sub> plants, especially some crops such as wheat, rice and soybean and potato, assimilate atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> directly through the C<sub>3</sub> photosynthetic pathway. C<sub>4</sub> plants, such as maize and sugarcane, evolved independently at least 45 times from C<sub>3</sub> plants, acquired the C<sub>4</sub> photosynthetic pathway with increased photosynthesis efficiency, 50% higher than for C<sub>3</sub> plants. Transgenic C<sub>3</sub> rice lines overexpressing multiple C<sub>4</sub> enzymes are now being produced for improving rice photosynthesis and grain yield to meet the increasing demand of the world food. In this paper, we review recent advances in molecular engineering of C<sub>4</sub> genes in C<sub>3</sub> plants. Furthermore, we argue that the final solution to produce C<sub>4</sub> rice is dependent on mechanistic understanding of the following aspects: formation of Kranz structure, evolution of photorespiration or CO<sub>2</sub> concentration mechanism of single cell photosynthesis.
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