《植物生理学报》 2011, 47(12): 1127-1136

C4水稻, 我们的新挑战

李圆圆^1,2, 张慧^2,3, 朱新广^1,2,*

中国科学院上海生命科学研究院1国家杂交水稻重点实验室, 2计算生物学研究所计算生物学重点实验室, 上海200031; 3山东师范大学逆境植物重点实验室，济南250014

通信作者：朱新广；E-mail: xinguang.zhu@gmail.com；Tel: 86-21-54920486

摘　要：

自从上个世纪60年代末C4光合途径发现以来，人们对工程改造现有C3粮食作物使之具有C4光合能力进行了大量努力。目前，大量分子、生理和基因组水平研究的进展和证据表明，该目标将可能在10~15年之内实现。本综述结合目前 国际C4研究的现状，详述了该领域目前所涉各项研究内容的理论依据。我们首先总结过去的经典杂交实验，然后论证新 一代测序技术与C4光合研究模式系统狐尾草(Setaria viridis)的发展极大的促进了我们对C4光合特征遗传发育相关基因的 发现与鉴定。最后，我们强调虽然C4光合工程改造的研究目前已在世界各国大规模展开，但其最终成功仍有赖于不同国 家研究基金及私立慈善基金的大力和长期共同资助。

关键词：C4光合途径; C4光合工程改造; 遗传工程改造; 新一代测序技术; 狐尾草

收稿：2011-09-24   修定：2011-10-31

C4 Rice: Are We Ready For The Challenge? A Historical Perspective

LI Yuan-Yuan^1,2, ZHANG Hui^2,3, ZHU Xin-Guang^1,2,*

¹State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice Research, ²Key Laboratory of Computational Biology and Partner Institute for Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; ³Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Research, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China

Corresponding author: ZHU Xin-Guang; E-mail: xinguang.zhu@gmail.com; Tel: 86-21-54920486

Abstract:

The world is entering an age when the increased demand for food production requires substantial enhancement of the crop productivity. Ever since the discovery of C4 photosynthesis in the late 1960s, attempts of engineering the current major staple crops to perform C4 photosynthesis have never stopped. Unfortunately, relatively little success has been achieved so far, which has created tremendous doubt in research community and policy makers alike regarding whether it is in the end possible to engineer C3 crops to perform C4 photosynthesis. Paramount of evidences with the rapid advances in the next generation sequencing technologies and new approaches in genetic engineering suggest the C4 engineering is a tangible goal. In this review, we discussed the rationales behind current major research activities. We begin by summarizing previous genetic studies through crossing. We further demonstrate that the combination of the next generation sequencing technology and a new model species for C4 photosynthesis research Setaria viridis will tremendously expedite our discovery of key genes controlling C4 development. Finally, we emphasize that though the C4 engineering has gained major momentum in scientific research community however its final success will require continued support from major different bodies, including not only public funding bodies to charity foundations.

Key words: C4 photosynthesis; C4 engineering; genetic engineering; next generation sequencing; Setaria viridis