title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK angela.white@sheffield.ac.uk c.p.osborne@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Angela C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: Biological, Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
authors.forename: Alistair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rees
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK angela.white@sheffield.ac.uk c.p.osborne@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Colin P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Osborne
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development*; D000069600:Plant Breeding; D063245:Plant Development
keywords: Carbon; crops; models; nitrogen; plant growth; regulation; sink; source.