Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Reducing shade avoidance can improve Arabidopsis canopy performance against competitors

View ORCID ProfileChrysoula K. Pantazopoulou, View ORCID ProfileFranca J. Bongers, View ORCID ProfileRonald Pierik
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/792283
Chrysoula K. Pantazopoulou
1Plant Ecophysiology, Dept. of Biology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Chrysoula K. Pantazopoulou
  • For correspondence: c.pantazopoulou@uu.nl r.pierik@uu.nl
Franca J. Bongers
1Plant Ecophysiology, Dept. of Biology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
2State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Franca J. Bongers
Ronald Pierik
1Plant Ecophysiology, Dept. of Biology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Ronald Pierik
  • For correspondence: c.pantazopoulou@uu.nl r.pierik@uu.nl
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The loss of crop yield due to weeds is an urgent agricultural problem. Although herbicides are an effective way to control weeds, more sustainable solutions for weed management are desirable. It has been proposed that crop plants can communally suppress weeds by shading them out. Shade avoidance responses, such as upward leaf movement (hyponasty) and stem or petiole elongation, enhance light capture of individual plants, increasing their individual fitness. The shading capacity of the entire crop community might, however, be more effective if aspects of shade avoidance are suppressed. Testing this hypothesis in crops is hampered by the lack of well-characterized mutants. We therefore investigated if Arabidopsis competitive performance at the community level against invading competitors is affected by the ability to display shade avoidance. We tested two mutants: pif4pif5 that has mildly reduced petiole elongation and hyponasty and pif7 with normal elongation but absent hyponasty in response to shade. Although pif4pif5 performed similar to wildtype, we found that pif7 showed significantly increased canopy biomass and suppression of invading competitors as compared to its wildtype. Our data thus show that modifying specific shade avoidance aspects has potential for plant community performance. This may help to suppress weeds in crop stands.

Highlight Hyponastic response in canopies facilitates light penetration and weed growth. Inhibition of this response to neighbors increased canopy biomass, canopy closure and suppression of competitors.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 04, 2019.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Reducing shade avoidance can improve Arabidopsis canopy performance against competitors
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Reducing shade avoidance can improve Arabidopsis canopy performance against competitors
Chrysoula K. Pantazopoulou, Franca J. Bongers, Ronald Pierik
bioRxiv 792283; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/792283
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Reducing shade avoidance can improve Arabidopsis canopy performance against competitors
Chrysoula K. Pantazopoulou, Franca J. Bongers, Ronald Pierik
bioRxiv 792283; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/792283

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Plant Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3609)
  • Biochemistry (7585)
  • Bioengineering (5533)
  • Bioinformatics (20825)
  • Biophysics (10344)
  • Cancer Biology (7995)
  • Cell Biology (11653)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6617)
  • Ecology (10224)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13639)
  • Genetics (9557)
  • Genomics (12856)
  • Immunology (7930)
  • Microbiology (19568)
  • Molecular Biology (7675)
  • Neuroscience (42182)
  • Paleontology (308)
  • Pathology (1259)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2208)
  • Physiology (3271)
  • Plant Biology (7058)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1295)
  • Synthetic Biology (1953)
  • Systems Biology (5433)
  • Zoology (1119)