Guo Yongfeng, Gan Su-Sheng
Key Laboratory for Tobacco Gene Resources, Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China.
Department of Horticulture and Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
J Exp Bot. 2014 Jul;65(14):3901-13. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eru248. Epub 2014 Jun 16.
Leaf senescence is a very important trait that limits yield and biomass accumulation of agronomic crops and reduces post-harvest performance and the nutritional value of horticultural crops. Significant advance in physiological and molecular understanding of leaf senescence has made it possible to devise ways of manipulating leaf senescence for agricultural improvement. There are three major strategies in this regard: (i) plant hormone biology-based leaf senescence manipulation technology, the senescence-specific gene promoter-directed IPT system in particular; (ii) leaf senescence-specific transcription factor biology-based technology; and (iii) translation initiation factor biology-based technology. Among the first strategy, the P SAG12 -IPT autoregulatory senescence inhibition system has been widely explored and successfully used in a variety of plant species for manipulating senescence. The vast majority of the related research articles (more than 2000) showed that crops harbouring the autoregulatory system displayed a significant delay in leaf senescence without any abnormalities in growth and development, a marked increase in grain yield and biomass, dramatic improvement in horticultural performance, and/or enhanced tolerance to drought stress. This technology is approaching commercialization. The transcription factor biology-based and translation initiation factor biology-based technologies have also been shown to be very promising and have great potentials for manipulating leaf senescence in crops. Finally, it is speculated that technologies based on the molecular understanding of nutrient recycling during leaf senescence are highly desirable and are expected to be developed in future translational leaf senescence research.
叶片衰老 是一个非常重要的性状，它限制了农作物的产量和生物量积累，并降低了园艺作物的采后性能和营养价值。在对叶片衰老的生理和分子理解方面取得的重大进展使得设计出操纵叶片衰老以改善农业的方法成为可能。在这方面有三种主要策略：（i）基于植物激素生物学的叶片衰老操纵技术，特别是衰老特异性基因启动子导向的IPT系统；（ii）基于叶片衰老特异性转录因子生物学的技术；以及（iii）基于翻译起始因子生物学的技术。在第一种策略中，PSAG12 -IPT自动调节衰老抑制系统已被广泛研究，并成功应用于多种植物物种来操纵衰老。绝大多数相关研究文章（超过2000篇）表明，拥有自动调节系统的作物叶片衰老显著延迟，生长发育无任何异常，谷物产量和生物量显著增加，园艺性能显著改善，和/或对干旱胁迫的耐受性增强。这项技术正在走向商业化。基于转录因子生物学和基于翻译起始因子生物学的技术也已被证明非常有前景，并且在操纵作物叶片衰老方面具有巨大潜力。最后，据推测，基于对叶片衰老过程中养分循环的分子理解的技术是非常可取的，并且有望在未来的转化叶片衰老研究中得到发展。
