C4 rice: a challenge for plant phenomics

There is now strong evidence that yield potential in rice (Oryza sativa L.) is becoming limited by ‘source’ capacity, i.e. photosynthetic capacity or efficiency, and hence the ability to fill the large number of grain ‘sinks’ produced in modern varieties. One solution to this problem is to introduce a more efficient, higher capacity photosynthetic mechanism to rice, the C4 pathway. A major challenge is identifying and engineering the genes...