caa a22 4500 605480877 CHVBK 20210128100418.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11099-015-0147-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11099-015-0147-9 Low contribution of photosynthesis and water-use efficiency to improvement of grain yield in Chinese wheat [Elektronische Daten] [X. Chen, M. Hao] The contribution of photosynthesis to yield improvement is important to know in order to determine future breeding strategies. The objectives of this study were to determine the contribution of photosynthesis and water-use efficiency (WUE) to grain yield improvement of facultative wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars on the Loess Plateau of China released between 1937 and 2004. The grain yield has increased nearly sevenfold during this period. Surprisingly, these increases were not correlated with the rate of photosynthesis per unit of leaf area when the cultivars were planted and managed in the same environment. The increases were also not correlated with transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, or WUE, except at the jointing stage. The total increase in photosynthesis may be due to enlargement of photosynthetic area and photosynthesis duration. The grain yield was positively correlated with the number of grains per unit of area (r = 0.855, P<0.05), harvest index (HI) (r = 0.885, P<0.01), and thousand-grain mass (r = 0.879, P<0.01). The increase in grain yield was limited by the grain number and the grain size (sink-limited) and the yield improvement was attributed to a rise in HI over the last 70 years in a highland agricultural system in China. The Institute of Experimental Botany, 2015 agronomic traits nationallicence flag leaf nationallicence grain number per area unit nationallicence highland agricultural system nationallicence jointing stage nationallicence rate of photosynthesis per leaf area unit nationallicence stomatal conductance nationallicence thousand-grain mass nationallicence transpiration rate nationallicence water-use efficiency nationallicence winter wheat nationallicence E : transpiration rate nationallicence g s : stomatal conductance nationallicence HI : harvest index nationallicence P N : net photosynthetic rate nationallicence WUE : water-use efficiency nationallicence Chen X. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, 712100, Yangling Shaanxi Province, China aut Hao M. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, 712100, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, China aut Photosynthetica The Institute of Experimental Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences 53/4(2015-12-01), 519-526 0300-3604 53:4<519 2015 53 11099 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0147-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0147-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chen X. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, 712100, Yangling Shaanxi Province, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Hao M. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, 712100, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Photosynthetica The Institute of Experimental Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences 53/4(2015-12-01), 519-526 0300-3604 53:4<519 2015 53 11099