Source limitations due to leaf rust (caused by Puccinia triticina) during grain filling in wheat

2014 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Román A. Serrago ◽  
Daniel J. Miralles

Late foliar diseases (especially leaf rust) reduce assimilate supply during post-anthesis, determining fewer assimilates per grain and thereby inducing grain weight reductions. Although the assimilate reduction hypothesis is the most accepted to explain decreases in grain weight due to late foliar diseases, it has not been clearly established whether those reductions could be completely ascribed to source limitations or whether diminished grain weight could be the consequence of reductions in grain weight potential. The objective of this work was to determine whether grain weight reductions due to leaf rust during grain filling could be associated with source–sink limitations. Two experiments (during 2007 and 2008 growing seasons) including healthy and diseased wheat crops were conducted under field conditions. Source–sink manipulation treatments and grain water content measurements were made to test the source- and sink- limitation hypotheses due to the appearance of late foliar diseases during grain filling. Leaf rust was induced to appear exclusively during grain filling, and in both years, it reduced grain yield and grain weight in both experiments. However, except for distal grains, there were no significant differences between healthy and diseased plots in maximum grain water content, indicating that late foliar diseases did not affect the potential size of the grains. The reserves stored in stems were remobilised to the growing grains in both healthy and diseased crops. However, the reserves remaining at physiological maturity were significantly reduced in diseased crops. Reduction in grain number by trimming the spikes increased the grain weight in diseased but not in healthy crops. Grain weight of trimmed spikes in diseased crops reached similar values to those of healthy crops. These results support the hypothesis that foliar diseases could cause source limitation for grain filling beyond differences in grain weight potential when the crops are severely affected by late foliar diseases such as leaf rust.

2006 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel F. Calderini ◽  
M. P. Reynolds ◽  
G. A. Slafer

Source limitation during grain filling is important for both management and breeding strategies of grain crops. There is little information on the sensitivity of grain weight of temperate cereals to variations in source–sink ratios, and no studies are available on the comparative behaviour of temperate cereals growing together in the same experiment. The objective of the current study was to evaluate, under field conditions, the response of grain weight to different source–sink ratios during grain filling in high-yielding cultivars of bread wheat, durum wheat, and triticale at 2 contrasting locations. Two experiments were carried out at C. Obregon and El Batan in Mexico. In each location, 6 genotypes (2 bread wheat, 2 durum wheat, 2 triticale) were evaluated. A week after anthesis, 2 source–sink (control and halved spikes) treatments were imposed. Location and genotype significantly (P < 0.01) affected grain yield and components. Significant grain weight increases (P < 0.05) were found only in 2 cases in El Batan. The highest response of 17% was found in triticale, with less than 10% in most of the other genotypes. The effect of genotype and location is discussed.


1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 1337 ◽  
Author(s):  
GA Slafer ◽  
R Savin

Postanthesis green area duration (GAD) has been associated frequently with yield. The senescence pattern of green organs is a major component of GAD. It has been proposed that delayed or accelerated senescence is strongly controlled by environmental conditions and the level of source or sink limitation on grain growth. In particular, it has been generally reported that the removal of reproductive structures delays the senescence process. However, results reporting this effect in wheat are not conclusive. A field experiment was conducted at the experimental station of The University of Melbourne comprising a factorial combination of a semidwarf and a standard-height wheat, and two levels of sink strength. At anthesis, 20 main shoots were tagged and detillered. Ten days after anthesis all the spikelets from one side of 10 tagged ears were removed by hand. The experiment was performed under natural, and 3 h-extended photoperiods from seedling emergence to heading. The photoperiod treatments induced differing grain filling environments and differing plant characteristics at onset of grain filling. Green area senescence was similar for both sink size treatments at any combination of cultivar and grain filling condition, indicating that the dynamics of plant senescence was insensitive to a severe reduction in number of grains per spike. Therefore, GAD was not significantly affected by the reduction in sink strength. The number of grains per spike were reduced to ca. 50% due to trimming. Therefore, source-sink ratio was doubled, but no significant changes in individual grain weight were found. There was no relationship between GAD and individual grain weight, confirming that grain growth in field-grown wheat is not limited by the strength of the source. Alternatively, our results confirmed that field-grown wheat is sink-limited during grain filling and that the likely accumulation of soluble carbohydrates in leaves does not affect the onset or rate of senescence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ballesteros-Rodríguez ◽  
C. G. Martínez-Rueda ◽  
E. J. Morales-Rosales ◽  
G. Estrada-Campuzano ◽  
G. F. González

The source-sink ratio experimental manipulation has helped to define whether a crop is limited by source or sink or co-limited by both. There is no evidence in triticale of source-sink manipulations effects on yield and yield components. Two experiments were accomplished during 2008 and 2009 growing seasons at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, México, and one in 2010 at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology in Pergamino, Argentina. Two triticale cultivars (line 4 and 7) and one wheat cultivar (Tollocan) were used. Source-sink relations were modified at anthesis by thinning, degraining, shading, and total defoliation procedures. Changes in the source-sink relation affected yields in both species differentially. The changes in yield due to cultivars and treatments were explained mainly by the number of grains rather than by their individual grain weight. The number of grains was affected by all treatments in both species, while the individual grain weight was increased by thinning and degraining mainly in triticale. A greater number of fertile florets in triticale were associated with their higher rate of abortion compared to wheat. These results could help to better understand crop management and genetic improvement.


2010 ◽  
Vol 56 (No. 5) ◽  
pp. 218-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Madani ◽  
A. Shirani-Rad ◽  
A. Pazoki ◽  
G. Nourmohammadi ◽  
R. Zarghami ◽  
...  

The experiments were laid out to understand the mechanisms causing yield limitations imposed by post-anthesis water and nitrogen deficiencies in plants with modified source-sink ratios. Two soil-water regimes were allotted to the main plots. At anthesis, three levels of N were applied: none, 25% and 50% of total the N supply. Spike-halving caused reduction in grain yield at both water regimes and all N supply levels, showing that the reduction in grain number can not be compensated by a higher individual grain weight. Sink reduction by trimming 50% of the spikelets reduced grain number per ear by 38.5% and increased individual grain weight by 12.0%, which shows the plasticity in grain weight and grain set of wheat if sufficient assimilates are available. Additional nitrogen supply at anthesis had no significant effect on the total aboveground biomass, but increased grain yield through more allocation of dry matter to grains. Our findings suggest that for rainfed wheat with optimum N supply and supplemental irrigation, wheat growers should choose cultivars with a high grain number per ear and manage the crop to increase grain number per unit of land (sink capacity).


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1527
Author(s):  
Carolina Rivera-Amado ◽  
Gemma Molero ◽  
Eliseo Trujillo-Negrellos ◽  
Matthew Reynolds ◽  
John Foulkes

Grain filling may be limited by the joint source and sink capacity in modern wheat cultivars, indicating a need to research the co-limitation of yield by both photosynthesis and the number and potential size of grains. The extent to which the post-anthesis source may be limiting final grain size can be estimated by partial degraining of spikes, while defoliation and shading treatments can be useful to estimate if any excess photosynthetic capacity exists. In the current study, degraining was applied to a set of 26 elite spring wheat cultivars from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)’s core germplasm (CIMCOG) panel, while lamina defoliation and shading through stem-and-leaf-sheath covering treatments were applied to a subset of the same cultivars. Responses to source treatments in grain weight, pre-anthesis reserve contribution to grain weight, dry-matter translocation efficiency, and flag-leaf and spike photosynthetic rate were measured and compared to an unmanipulated control treatment. Grain weight responses to degraining among cultivars ranged from no response to increases of 28%, suggesting a range of responses from sink limitation, to probable source and sink co-limitation of grain growth. Grain weight’s response to degraining increased linearly with the years of cultivar release from 1966 to 2009, indicating that the current highest yield potential CIMMYT spring wheats have a co-limitation of grain growth by source and sink. This may have been due to an increase in grain sink strength with years of cultivar release with no commensurate increase in post-anthesis source capacity. The relatively low decreases in grain weight with defoliation compared to decreases in light interception by defoliation indicated that sink limitation was still likely predominating in the cultivars with co-limitation. The stem-and-leaf-sheath covering treatment decreased grain weight by nearly 10%, indicating that stem-and-leafsheath photosynthesis plays a key role in grain growth during grain filling. In addition, pre-anthesis reserve contribution to grain weight was increased by ca. 50% in response to lamina defoliation. Our results showed that increasing the post-anthesis source capacity, through increases in stem-and-leaf-sheath photosynthetic rate during grain filling and pre-anthesis reserve contribution to grain weight, is an important objective in enhancing yield potential in wheat through maintaining a source–sink balance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Mirosavljević ◽  
Vojislava Momčilović ◽  
Srbislav Denčić ◽  
Sanja Mikić ◽  
Dragana Trkulja ◽  
...  

Climate significantly affects cropping systems across Europe. Knowledge of the variability in grain number per unit area and grain weight across different growing seasons and its association with grain yield is important for further improving small grain crop production. The main aim of this study was to compare grain yield and its numerical components among triticale, wheat, two-rowed and six-rowed barley cultivars across different growing seasons in a typical Pannonian location (south-eastern part of Central Europe). Trials with twelve winter cereal genotypes (three two-rowed barley, three six-rowed barley, three wheat and three triticale genotypes) were carried out in four successive seasons in Novi Sad, Serbia. Results of this study showed that growing season, species, cultivar, and species × growing season interaction significantly (p<0.01) affected grain yield and its determinants. Generally, triticale had higher average grain yield, while the lowest grain yield was recorded in six-rowed barleys. Grain yield was more associated with the number of grains/m2 than with grain weight. Heading date was recognized as one of the important adaptive traits in crop development and yield determination. Short duration of the pre-anthesis phase in early cultivars and delayed anthesis in late cultivars significantly decreased the number of grains/spike in different species/spike types, reducing the final grain yield. Medium early cultivars had the highest number of grains/spike due to optimal duration of the pre-anthesis period and heading date and are suggested as recommendable for large scale production in the Pannonian environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 2127-2137
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Paul ◽  
Amy Watson ◽  
Cara A. Griffiths

The domestication and breeding of crops has been a major achievement for mankind enabling the development of stable societies and civilisation. Crops have become more productive per unit area of cultivated land over the course of domestication supporting a current global population of 7.8 billion. Food security crops such as wheat and maize have seen large changes compared with early progenitors. Amongst processes that have been altered in these crops, is the allocation of carbon resources to support larger grain yield (grain number and size). In wheat, reduction in stem height has enabled diversion of resources from stems to ears. This has freed up carbon to support greater grain yield. Green revolution genes responsible for reductions in stem height are known, but a unifying mechanism for the active regulation of carbon resource allocation towards and within sinks has however been lacking. The trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) signalling system has emerged as a mechanism of resource allocation and has been implicated in several crop traits including assimilate partitioning and improvement of yield in different environments. Understanding the mode of action of T6P through the SnRK1 protein kinase regulatory system is providing a basis for a unifying mechanism controlling whole-plant resource allocation and source-sink interactions in crops. Latest results show it is likely that the T6P/SnRK1 pathway can be harnessed for further improvements such as grain number and grain filling traits and abiotic stress resilience through targeted gene editing, breeding and chemical approaches.


2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria S. Passarella ◽  
Roxana Savin ◽  
Gustavo A. Slafer

Under field conditions the occurrence of brief periods of moderately high (30–32°C) and very high temperatures (>35°C) is quite common during grain filling in small-grain cereals. These events occur under a wide range of different management and environmental conditions, such as different nitrogen supplies and source–sink ratios after flowering. The objective of the present work was to study whether the effect of a brief heat stress is modified by resource availability for the growing grains. We subjected spikes of barley 10 days after flowering to a heat treatment in factorial combination with different nitrogen availabilities and source–sink ratios during post-flowering to determine effects on grain weight and major malting quality attributes. Grain weight and screening percentage (proportion of grains <2.5 mm) were reduced by the mild heat stress. However, the magnitude of the effect was dependent on the nitrogen fertilisation and the source–sink treatments in which the heat stress was imposed. Grain protein and β-glucan percentages were increased by both nitrogen fertilisation and heat stress. Again, the magnitude of the increase was dependent upon the availability of resources. There was a trend to reduce malt extract in all treatments with respect to the control, but the reduction was only statistically significant with heat stress.


2009 ◽  
Vol 147 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. ACRECHE ◽  
G. A. SLAFER

SUMMARYWheat yield and grain nitrogen concentration (GNC; mg N/g grain) are frequently negatively correlated. In most growing conditions, this is mainly due to a feedback process between GNC and the number of grains/m2. In Mediterranean conditions, breeders may have produced cultivars with conservative grain set. The present study aimed at clarifying the main physiological determinants of grain nitrogen accumulation (GNA) in Mediterranean wheat and to analyse how breeding has affected them. Five field experiments were carried out in north-eastern Spain in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 growing seasons with three cultivars released at different times and an advanced line. Depending on the experiment, source-sink ratios during grain filling were altered by reducing grain number/m2 either through pre-anthesis shading (unshaded control or 0·75 shading only between jointing and anthesis) or by directly trimming the spikes after anthesis and before the onset of the effective grain filling period (un-trimmed control or spikes halved 7–10 days after anthesis). Grain nitrogen content (GN content; mg N/grain) decreased with the year of release of the genotypes. As the number of grains/m2 was also increased by breeding there was a clear dilution effect on the amount of nitrogen allocated to each grain. However, the increase in GN content in old genotypes did not compensate for the loss in grain nitrogen yield (GNY) due to the lower number of grains/m2. GN content of all genotypes increased (increases ranged from 0·13 to 0·40 mg N/grain, depending on experiment and genotype) in response to the post-anthesis spike trimming or pre-anthesis shading. The degree of source-limitation for GNA increased with the year of release of the genotypes (and thus with increases in grain number/m2) from 0·22 (mean of the four manipulative experiments) in the oldest cultivar to 0·51 (mean of the four manipulative experiments) in the most modern line. It was found that final GN content depended strongly on the source-sink ratio established at anthesis between the number of grains set and the amount of nitrogen absorbed at this stage. Thus, Mediterranean wheat breeding that improved yield through increases in grain number/m2 reduced the GN content by diluting a rather limited source of nitrogen into more grains. This dilution effect produced by breeding was further confirmed by the reversal effect produced by grain number/m2 reductions due to either pre-anthesis shading or post-anthesis spike trimming.


2002 ◽  
Vol 138 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. R. E. DIMMOCK ◽  
M. J. GOODING

Three field experiments were conducted on sandy-loam soils comparing the effects of triazole, strobilurin and oxazolidinedione fungicides applied at flag leaf emergence and again at ear emergence to wheat between 1998 and 2000. Cultivars Hereward and Consort were included in all 3 years, Cockpit in 1999 and 2000 and Charger in 1999. Foliar disease, green area of the flag leaf, grain weight and moisture content were assessed weekly during grain filling and senescence. Grain yield, 1000 grain weight (TGW) and specific weights were measured at harvest maturity. Septoria tritici was the dominant disease in all cultivars except Cockpit, where Puccinia striiformis caused most damage. Consort was more affected than Hereward by S. tritici in all years. Effects of fungicides on disease control were usually reflected in green flag leaf area duration (GFLAD), with large gains in Consort and Cockpit. In 2000, however, fungicides increased GFLAD of Hereward and Consort by similar amounts. Apical grains had smaller water content than medially placed grains. Maximum water content was positively influenced by fungicides where significant disease was controlled before maximum grain weight had been attained. Grain weight in Hereward was less affected than other cultivars by fungicides in both positions. Grain filling rates varied between cultivar and ear position by inconsistent and small amounts, but large and significant gains from fungicide treatment were made in grain filling periods. These varied from 0·16 days per day GFLAD in Hereward to 0·69 days per day GFLAD in Consort in apical grains in 2000. Gains in GFLAD were associated with increased yield, TGW and specific weight, but these relationships varied with cultivar. Increases in GFLAD by fungicide in Hereward in 2000 occurred much later relative to grain filling and thus after the time of maximum grain water content, resulting in smaller gains in filling duration, yield, TGW and specific weight than that seen in Consort. There was no evidence of differing relationships between GFLAD and yield for the different fungicide groups used in these experiments.


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