Abstract
The phytochrome photoreceptor family regulates plant architecture in response to environmental light signals. Phytochromes mediate the shade avoidance syndrome, in which plants react to far-red radiation reflected from neighbors by elongation growth, occurring at the expense of leaf and storage organ production. We show that transgenic overproduction of phytochrome A in tobacco suppresses shade avoidance, causing proximity-conditional dwarfing. At high densities in the field, assimilates show an enhanced allocation to leaves, with a concomitant increase in harvest index. Transfer of this approach to other crop plants could provide significant improvements in productivity.
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Robson, P., McCormac, A., Irvine, A. et al. Genetic engineering of harvest index in tobacco through overexpression of a phytochrome gene. Nat Biotechnol 14, 995–998 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0896-995
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0896-995
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