Crop yield improvements need to accelerate to avoid future food insecurity. Outside Europe, genetically modified (GM) crops for herbicide- and insect-resistance have been transformative in agriculture; other traits have also come to market. However, GM of yield potential and stress resilience has yet to impact on food security. Genes have been identified for yield such as grain number, size, leaf growth, resource allocation, and signaling for drought tolerance, but there is only one commercialized drought-tolerant GM variety. For GM and genome editing to impact on yield and resilience there is a need to understand yield-determining processes in a cell and developmental context combined with evaluation in the grower environment. We highlight a sugar signaling mechanism as a paradigm for this approach.

需要加快提高作物产量，以避免未来的粮食不安全。在欧洲以外，抗除草剂和抗虫的转基因（GM）作物已经在农业中发生了变革；其他特性也已上市。然而，具有产量潜力和抗逆能力的转基因尚未对粮食安全产生影响。已经确定了产量的基因，例如谷物数量、大小、叶片生长、资源分配和耐旱信号，但只有一种商业化的耐旱转基因品种。为了使转基因和基因组编辑影响产量和恢复力，需要了解细胞和发育环境中的产量决定过程，并结合种植者环境中的评估。我们强调糖信号机制作为这种方法的范例。