Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Center of Agriculture Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, China Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shjiazhuang.
Crit Rev Biotechnol. 2011 Sep;31(3):281-93. doi: 10.3109/07388551.2010.531004. Epub 2011 Apr 13.
Bio-water saving can be defined as the reduction of crop water consumption employing biological measures. This is the focus of efforts to save water in agriculture. Different levels of water-use efficiency (WUE) have been developed. The genetic diversity of WUE has been confirmed in several crops. WUE is the basis of bio-watering and physiological WUE is the key. The degree to develop physiological WUE potential decides the performance of bio-watering in the field. During this process, fine management is important. Thus bio-watering is closely related to WUE. Crop WUE has improved and evolved as a result of breeding programs. Many WUE genes have been located in different genomic and aneuploid materials and have been mapped by various molecular markers in a number of crops. Two genes, (Erecta and alx8), which control water use efficiency; have been cloned in Arabidopsis thaliana. Eleven WUE genes have been identified by microarray analysis. Six genes associated with drought resistance and photosynthesis have been transfered into crops which have resulted in improving WUE and drought resistance. WUE is important on the basis of functional identification of more drought resistant gene resources. The popularity on the industrial-scale of transgenic plants is still in its infancy and one of the reasons for this is the lack of knowledge regarding molecular mechanisms and it is a very immature technology. Enhanced agricultural practices and the theoretical aspects of improving crop WUE have been developed and are discussed in this review paper. Rapid progress will be made in bio-water savings and that crop WUE can be substantially improved under both favorable and unfavorable water-limited environments. This will be achieved by a combination of traditional breeding techniques and the introduction of modern biotechnology.
生物节水可以定义为采用生物措施减少作物耗水量。这是农业节水努力的重点。已经开发出不同水平的用水效率（WUE）。在几种作物中已经证实了 WUE 的遗传多样性。WUE 是生物灌溉的基础，生理 WUE 是关键。生理 WUE 潜力的发展程度决定了田间生物灌溉的性能。在此过程中，精细管理很重要。因此，生物节水与 WUE 密切相关。通过育种计划，作物 WUE 得到了提高和发展。许多 WUE 基因已经定位在不同的基因组和非整倍体材料中，并在许多作物中通过各种分子标记进行了图谱绘制。在拟南芥中已经克隆了两个控制水分利用效率的基因（Erecta 和 alx8）。通过微阵列分析已经鉴定出 11 个 WUE 基因。已经将与抗旱和光合作用相关的 6 个基因转移到作物中，从而提高了 WUE 和抗旱性。在对更多抗旱基因资源进行功能鉴定的基础上，WUE 很重要。由于缺乏对分子机制的了解，以及该技术非常不成熟，转基因植物的工业化应用仍处于起步阶段。本文综述了增强农业实践和提高作物 WUE 的理论方面。在有利和不利的限水环境下，生物节水和作物 WUE 都将取得实质性的提高。这将通过传统育种技术与现代生物技术的引入相结合来实现。
