"Crop systems biology as an avenue to bridge plant modelling and crop improvement".

Accès IRC

Genetic improvement in crop productivity, either from exploiting natural genetic variation by conventional breeding or from genetic engineering and synthetic biology approaches, could be benefited from computational models that cover adjoining levels of the biological-organization scale. As crop productivity is a consequence of the cumulative effects of environmental conditions and their interactions on multiple intermediate component processes and feedback and compensation mechanisms, any proposed targets at (sub-) cellular scales for crop improvement will have to be evaluated in terms of their influence on phenotypes at the crop scale. Grounded on this ‘crop systems biology’ concept, my seminar will show how the mechanistic crop model GECROS can capture multiple interactions, feedback and compensation mechanisms and link biological targets and crop phenotypes. Examples will be given, in which the model was used to investigate the potential contribution of exploiting natural genetic variation and genetic engineering of biochemical components of leaf photosynthesis on rice yields under diverse environmental conditions. To supercharge crop productivity, exploring a combination of routes in improving CO2-concentrating mechanisms, photosynthetic capacity and quantum efficiency was required. Yield differences did not result only from the increased canopy photosynthesis competence but also from changes in traits like light interception, root-shoot partitioning, and crop respiration and senescence.