title: Mesophyll conductance to CO2 and Rubisco as targets for improving intrinsic water use efficiency in C3 plants.
abstract: Water limitation is a major global constraint for plant productivity that is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Hence, improving plant water use efficiency (WUE) has become a major goal for the near future. At the leaf level, WUE is the ratio between photosynthesis and transpiration. Maintaining high photosynthesis under water stress, while improving WUE requires either increasing mesophyll conductance (gm ) and/or improving the biochemical capacity for CO2 assimilation-in which Rubisco properties play a key role, especially in C3 plants at current atmospheric CO2 . The goals of the present analysis are: (1) to summarize the evidence that improving gm and/or Rubisco can result in increased WUE; (2) to review the degree of success of early attempts to genetically manipulate gm or Rubisco; (3) to analyse how gm , gsw and the Rubisco's maximum velocity (Vcmax ) co-vary across different plant species in well-watered and drought-stressed conditions; (4) to examine how these variations cause differences in WUE and what is the overall extent of variation in individual determinants of WUE; and finally, (5) to use simulation analysis to provide a theoretical framework for the possible control of WUE by gm and Rubisco catalytic constants vis-à-vis gsw under water limitations.
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Flexas
authors: Irrigation and Crop Ecophysiology Group, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS, CSIC), Avenida Reina Mercedes 10, 41012, Sevilla, Spain.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Díaz-Espejo
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Conesa
authors: Ecophysiology Laboratory for Forest Conservation, Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, 5110566, Valdivia, Chile.
authors: R E
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5646-1875
authors: RE
authors: Coopman
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Douthe
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.|Applied Plant and Soil Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Gago
authors: Bayer CropScience NV, Innovation Center, Technologiepark 38, 9052, Zwijnaarde, Belgium.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Gallé
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Galmés
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Medrano
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Ribas-Carbo
authors: Research Group on Plant Biology under Mediterranean Conditions, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Tomàs
authors: Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 1, Tartu, 51014, Estonia.|Estonian Academy of Sciences, Kohtu 6, 10130, Tallinn, Estonia.
authors: Ü
authors: Ü
authors: Niinemets
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D058503:Mesophyll Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D010788:Photosynthesis; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase / Q000378:metabolism*; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase
keywords: Rubisco; Vcmax; WUE; aquaporins; carbonic anhydrase; gene modification; leaf anatomy; mesophyll conductance; stomatal conductance; stomatal manipulation