创造“玉米稻”:禾谷作物高产优质的一个新战略

Creating maize-rice: a new strategy to obtain cereal crop possessing both high yield and superior quality

基于持续的人口增加和因都市化而耕地减少的严峻局面,预计到2050年世界主要粮食作物水稻和小麦的单位面积产量至少增加50%才能满足人口增长的需要。通过基因工程把高效的C4光合作用引入C3植物是应对这个挑战的一个办法。"C4水稻"国际合作研究项目实施10多年了,迄今尚无重大突破,有必要探索获得高产优质禾谷类作物的新战略。用合成生物学技术创造"玉米稻"就是这样的新战略,其目标是将进行C4光合作用、具有高光能、水分和氮利用效率的玉米改造成籽粒品质类似甚至超过水稻的玉米稻。

Based on the continuing population increase and decrease in cultivated land due to urbanization, it has been predicted that the yield per unit area of major food crops such as rice and wheat must be increased at least by 50% to meet the increased food demand. Engineering the efficient C4 photosynthesis into C3 crops is regarded as an option to tackle this challenge. The international cooperation project of C4 rice has been implemented for more than ten years, but there is no breakthrough up to now. Therefore, it is necessary to exploring new strategies to dramatically improve the yield and quality of current cereal crops. Creating "maize-rice" through the synthetic biology technology is such a strategy. Its aim is to transform maize into maize-rice, which has not only high light use efficiency, high water and nitrogen use efficiency associated with C4 photosynthesis, but also better grain quality similar or even superior to rice grain.