CO₂施肥効果は世代を超えて持続しないことを解明 (CO₂ Fertilization Effect on Rice Yield Is Not Sustained over Multiple Generations)

2025-01-17 中国科学院（CAS）

Rice responses to single-generation and multigenerational exposure to elevated CO2 (Image by ZHU Chunwu’s team)

＜関連情報＞

• https://english.cas.cn/newsroom/research_news/earth/202601/t20260123_1146496.shtml
• https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(25)00399-9

二酸化炭素施肥による米の収量への影響は複数世代にわたって持続しない Carbon dioxide fertilization effect on rice yield is not sustained over multiple generations

Chuang Cai ∙ Ye Tao ∙ Xinyou Yin ∙ … ∙ Yiqi Luo ∙ Renfang Shen ∙ Chunwu Zhu
One Earth  Published:January 16, 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101573

Science for society

Feeding the growing population is one of the greatest challenges and calls for increasing global crop yields. Rising atmospheric CO₂ concentration under future climate conditions offers opportunities to increase yields via the CO₂ fertilization effect on crops such as rice, which billions depend on. For decades, the CO₂ fertilization effect has been studied in short-term experiments. However, in the future high-CO₂ world, crops will be grown generation after generation under elevated CO₂ conditions. Whether the CO₂ fertilization effect can be sustained over the long term remains unclear. We investigated the CO₂ fertilization effect on rice over multiple generations in open-air field conditions. We found that the CO₂ fertilization effect on rice growth and yield strongly depends on the number of generations exposed to elevated CO₂. This indicates that short-term experiments upon which we have relied for decades cannot reliably predict long-term responses of rice growth and yield to elevated CO₂. Therefore, global food security predictions based on short-term elevated CO₂ experiments can be erroneous. We urgently need long-term studies to accurately predict crop yields in the high-CO₂ world and to help design strategies for ensuring food security in the long run.

Highlights

• The CO₂ fertilization effect on rice growth depends on maternal CO₂ experiences
• The multigenerational effect of maternal eCO₂ differs between rice cultivars
• DNA methylation and transcriptome changes explain the multigenerational eCO₂ effect
• Multigenerational eCO₂ effect is critical for future rice yield projection

Summary

Global crop production needs to increase to meet the growing demand for food. Rising atmospheric CO₂ concentration offers opportunities to increase global productivity via the CO₂ fertilization effect on C₃ crops (including rice, Oryza sativa L.). However, whether the CO₂ fertilization effect can be sustained over generations remains unclear. Here, we show that the CO₂ fertilization effects on aboveground biomass, aboveground nitrogen uptake, and yield strongly depends on the number of generations in maternal elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) for rice cultivars Yangdao 6 (Y6; indica subspecies) and Wuyungeng 23 (W23; japonica subspecies) in free-air CO₂ enrichment (FACE) experiments. DNA methylation and transcriptome changes provided epigenetic evidence on the multigenerational effects of maternal eCO₂ on aboveground biomass, aboveground nitrogen uptake, and yield in both cultivars/subspecies. Our results highlight that data from multigenerational exposure to FACE experiments are needed to accurately predict crop production and food security in a future high-CO₂ world.