Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
Volume 72, Issue 2, Pages 542-560Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eraa459
Keywords
African crops; climate change effects on plants; crop improvement; cyanide; food security; photosynthesis; photosynthetic efficiency; root sink capacity; source sink relationship; staple root crop
Categories
Funding
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP1113365]
- Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office [OPP1172157]
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP1113365] Funding Source: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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The study found that increased CO2 concentrations can enhance the sink strength of cassava roots, potentially increasing cassava yields. However, differences in resource allocation between cultivars must be considered when selecting candidates for improvement.
Cassava has the potential to alleviate food insecurity in many tropical regions, yet few breeding efforts to increase yield have been made. Improved photosynthetic efficiency in cassava has the potential to increase yields, but cassava roots must have sufficient sink strength to prevent carbohydrates from accumulating in leaf tissue and suppressing photosynthesis. Here, we grew eight farmer-preferred African cassava cultivars under free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) to evaluate the sink strength of cassava roots when photosynthesis increases due to elevated CO2 concentrations ([CO2]). Relative to the ambient treatments, elevated [CO2] treatments increased fresh (+27%) and dry (+37%) root biomass, which was driven by an increase in photosynthesis (+31%) and the absence of photosynthetic down-regulation over the growing season. Moreover, intrinsic water use efficiency improved under elevated [CO2] conditions, while leaf protein content and leaf and root cyanide concentrations were not affected. Overall, these results suggest that higher cassava yields can be expected as atmospheric [CO2] increases over the coming decades. However, there were cultivar differences in the partitioning of resources to roots versus above-grown biomass; thus, the particular responses of each cultivar must be considered when selecting candidates for improvement.
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