Breeding programs with the aim to enhance yield productivity under abiotic stress conditions during the reproductive stage of crops is a top priority in the era of climate change. However, the choice of exploring stay-green or senescence phenotypes, which represent an opposing physiological bearing, are explored in cereal breeding programs for enhanced yield stability to a different extent. Thu...

Grain filling in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) mainly depends on actual photosynthesis, being the contribution of stored reserves in stems (sucrose, hexoses, and starch) rather low. Drought periods during grain filling often reduce yield. Increasing the capacity of stem to store reserves could help to increase grain filling and yield stability in dry years. Fructans improve water uptake in s...

Maydup ML, Antonietta M, Guiamet JJ, Graciano C, Lopez JR, Tambussi EA. 2010. The contribution of ear photosynthesis to grain filling in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Field Crops Research 119, 48–58. Motzo R, Giunta F. 2002. Awnedness affects grain yield and kernel weight in near-isogenic lines of durum wheat. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 53, 1285–1293. Rebetzke GJ, Bonnett...

Wheat starch degradation requires the synergistic action of different amylolytic enzymes. Our spatio-temporal study of wheat α-amylases throughout grain development shows that AMY3 is the most abundant isoform compared with the other known α-amylases. Endosperm-specific over-expression of AMY3 resulted in an increase of total α-amylase activity in harvested grains. Unexpectedly, increased activ...

Effective grain filling is one of the key determinants of grain setting in rice (Oryza sativa). Grain setting defect1 (GSD1), which encodes a putative remorin protein, was found to affect grain setting in rice. Investigation of the phenotype of a transfer DNA insertion mutant (gsd1-Dominant) with enhanced GSD1 expression revealed abnormalities including a reduced grain setting rate, accumulatio...

Wheat grain end-use value is determined by complex molecular interactions that occur during grain development, including those in the cell nucleus. However, our knowledge of how the nuclear proteome changes during grain development is limited. Here, we analyzed nuclear proteins of developing wheat grains collected during the cellularization, effective grain-filling, and maturation phases of dev...

The yield loss simulation (YLS) and the MACROS LIQ.CSM models were used to simulate the effect of stem borer damage at a detillering rate of 5, 15, 30, 60% at vegetative, panicle initiation and grain filing stages, on yield of rice cultivar?s Ratna. This stem borer damage during vegetative and panicle initiation stages was not simulated appropriately by both the models. Relatively MACROS simul...