Researchers have investigated how the behavior of an individual wheat plant under limiting light conditions influences the performance of the whole community. They assessed morphological and biomass phenotypes of single plants grown in mixtures under sunlight and a simulated canopy shade, and the relevance of these phenotypes for the monoculture community in the field.
One of the most significant drivers of crop evolution stems from the changes in the selection associated with the shift of plants from a highly heterogeneous and biodiverse natural environment into a homogeneous monoculture environment. Competition for resources has been considered a prevalent force in structuring plant populations under natural selection, often favoring the most competitive individual plants in a particular environment.
"Agriculture relies on community performance," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schnurbusch, head of the research group"Plant Architecture" at IPK Leibniz Institute."But the environment in which crops are grown, i.e. their ecology in the agricultural context, their agroecology, is hardly explored and less understood. It is surprising how less we know about the interactions among plants grown in a dense, real-world community.
Today, crop plants are grown in high-density stands where they experience limited light availability due to mutual shading."Therefore, by simulating canopy shade, we may get closer to the conditions plants are experiencing in high-density stands in the field, which may be helpful for studying and selecting plants for higher grain yield," says Dr. Guy Golan, first author of the current study.
The researchers found behaviors that nourish the fitness of the individual plant as non-beneficial and, in some cases, detrimental to the performance of the whole community. The results have recently been published in the"Plant, Cell & Environment" journal as part of the Special Issue:.
"Having much deeper insights into these interactions, and specifically understanding their molecular and genetic components is very important to develop more resilient and resource-efficient crop plants for the future," says Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schnurbusch."Embracing an agroecological genetics approach may optimize communal yield by better matching crops to their environment, as either monoculture or a mixture.
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