How can we make plants grow faster? A source–sink perspective on growth rate

Abstract

Growth is a major component of fitness in all organisms, an important mediator of competitive interactions in plant communities, and a central determinant of yield in crops. Understanding what limits plant growth is therefore of fundamental importance to plant evolution, ecology, and crop science, but each discipline views the process from a different perspective. This review highlights the importance of source-sink interactions as determinants of growth. The evidence for source- and sink-limitation of growth, and the ways in which regulatory molecular feedback systems act to maintain an appropriate source:sink balance, are first discussed. Evidence clearly shows that future increases in crop productivity depend crucially on a quantitative understanding of the extent to which sources or sinks limit growth, and how this changes during development. To identify bottlenecks limiting growth and yield, a holistic view of growth is required at the whole-plant scale, incorporating mechanistic interactions between physiology, resource allocation, and plant development. Such a holistic perspective on source-sink interactions will allow the development of a more integrated, whole-system level understanding of growth, with benefits across multiple disciplines.

The impact of organic manure and nano-inorganic fertilizers on the growth, yield and oil content of sunflowers under well-watered conditions

“…The source-sink relationship determines the crop yield, and it is largely regulated by water and nutrients in semi-arid regions. The ratio between organ assimilate demand and assimilate supply at the plant scale has been found to be one of the key factors affecting plant growth and development (White et al, 2016). In the current study both sink and source organs were affected by nutrient management.…”

“…Therefore, the increase in the chlorophyll content can be considered equivalent to the increased source strength. A general definition of source strength should therefore consider the export rate of a photoassimilates from the source tissue (White et al, 2016).…”

The Impacts of Nano-Structured Nutrients on Chickpea Performance under Supplemental Irrigation

“…Seed yield was determined by sink-source interactions and it emphasizes the importance of sources and sinks as determinants of growth and as targets for crop improvement. Source activity refers to the plant ability to produce photoassimilates, while sink activity refers to the internal drawdown of these resources (White et al 2016). The result suggested that the increase of sink size (e.g.…”

Transitioning to the Next Phase: The Role of Sugar Signaling throughout the Plant Life Cycle

“…While this Update focuses on sugars as signals for carbon availability, it should be kept in mind that sugar signals also interact with nitrogen (e.g. Osuna et al, 2015;White et al, 2016) and hormone (e.g. Matsoukas, 2014a) signaling pathways.…”