Biological limits on nitrogen use for plant photosynthesis: a quantitative revision comparing cultivated and wild species

Abstract

- The relationship between leaf photosynthesis and nitrogen is a critical production function for ecosystem functioning. Cultivated species have been studied in terms of this relationship, focusing on improving nitrogen (N) use, while wild species have been studied to evaluate leaf evolutionary patterns. A comprehensive comparison of cultivated vs wild species for this relevant function is currently lacking. We hypothesize that cultivated species show increased carbon assimilation per unit leaf N area compared with wild species as associated with artificial selection for resource-acquisition traits. - We compiled published data on light-saturated photosynthesis (Amax) and leaf nitrogen (LNarea) for cultivated and wild species. The relationship between Amax and LNarea was evaluated using a frontier analysis (90th percentile) to benchmark the biological limit of nitrogen use for photosynthesis. - Carbon assimilation in relation to leaf N was not consistently higher in cultivated species; out of 14 cultivated species, only wheat, rice, maize and sorghum showed higher ability to use N for photosynthesis compared with wild species. - Results indicate that cultivated species have not surpassed the biological limit on nitrogen use observed for wild species. Future increases in photosynthesis based on natural variation need to be assisted by bioengineering of key enzymes to increase crop productivity.