Photons to food: genetic improvement of cereal crop photosynthesis

Photosynthesis has become a major trait of interest for cereal yield improvement as breeders appear to have reached the theoretical genetic limit for harvest index, the mass of grain as a proportion of crop biomass. Yield improvements afforded by the adoption of green revolution dwarfing genes to wheat and rice are becoming exhausted, and improvements in biomass and radiation use efficiency are now sought in these crops. Exploring genetic diversity in photosynthesis is now possible using high-throughput techniques, and low-cost genotyping facilitates discovery of the genetic architecture underlying this variation. Photosynthetic traits have been shown to be highly heritable, and significant variation is present for these traits in available germplasm. This offers hope that breeding for improved photosynthesis and radiation use efficiency in cereal crops is tractable and a useful shorter term adjunct to genetic and genome engineering to boost yield potential.