Flower heterochrony and crop yield.

Marina M Strelin, Pamela K Diggle, Marcelo A Aizen

Journal: Trends in plant science 2023;28(12):1360-1369

PMID: 37612211

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Crop improvement has focused on enhancing yield, nutrient content, harvestability, and stress resistance using a trait-centered reductionist approach. This has downplayed the fact that plants are developmentally integrated and respond coordinately and predictably to genetic and environmental variation, with potential consequences for food production. Crop yield, including both fruit/seed production and the possibility of generating hybrid crop varieties, is highly dependent on flower morphology and sex, which, in turn, can be profoundly affected by slight shifts in the timing and rate of flower organ development (i.e., flower heterochrony). We argue that understanding the genetic and environmental bases of flower heterochrony and their effect on flower morphology and sex in cultivated plants and in their wild relatives can facilitate crop improvement.

Address: Grupo de Investigación en Ecología de la Polinización, Laboratorio Ecotono, INIBIOMA (CONICET - Universidad Nacional del Comahue), San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina. Electronic address: [email protected].; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.; Grupo de Investigación en Ecología de la Polinización, Laboratorio Ecotono, INIBIOMA (CONICET - Universidad Nacional del Comahue), San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.

DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.07.013

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MeSH Terms: Flowers, Reproduction, Plants, Seeds, Fruit