In general, mature leaves do not produce new plant cells, and mature plant cells do not divide into new cells.

Therefore, Chen Cheng can only tentatively set the idea of letting mature cells generate new chloroplasts again.

And I can't guarantee that my idea will come true.

Generally speaking, wheat grows a total of 12-18 leaves during its life cycle. The number of leaves in wheat has a lot to do with the sowing date, sowing depth, moisture and nutrient status.

Most of the leaves appear in the early stage of wheat growth and fall off as the plant matures, and generally the mature wheat has four to six leaves on the main stem and ground segments, most of which have five.

Winter wheat has more leaves than spring wheat, and the main stem and leaves with a long growth period are more. For wheat plants that have not passed vernalization before winter, most of the spring leaves after winter are 6-7, and 6 are the majority.

The number of leaves of winter, semi-winter and spring varieties is different, and the number of leaves of the same variety can be different depending on the sowing date, generally eight to fourteen pieces.

Therefore, without changing the genes of the variety, the number of leaves of this wheat is fixed now, and it has reached maturity, and the number of leaves will not increase.

These basic principles all show that the only way to do this is to go from the existing blades.

Try to save wheat by saving chloroplasts.

"Show me the process of chloroplasts from birth to disappearance in the cell."

【Okay】

A 3D virtual image of the cell is brought up. Chen Cheng could see that it was a newly developed plant cell.

Before the cell matures, chloroplasts proliferate in two ways: budding or evenly splitting, and then the number of layers of basal and thylakoid sheets increases, the volume increases, and the volume of the cell also increases, which is the early stage of cell development.

Within 30 days after cell maturation, chloroplasts mature, and quantitative traits related to photosynthetic rate (chloroplast size, number of basal grains, number of thylakoid stacks, etc.) maintained the highest values in a lifetime. The matrix has a high electron density, but the basal granules are sometimes not arranged in a neat manner, and the chloroplasts are deformed, and small vesicles are common around them.

After 30 days of leaf length, the chloroplasts became smaller and fewer, the basal granule arrangement was disordered, the substrate electron density decreased, and the osmium-loving granules became larger, which gradually tended to senescence.

Through the observation of the ultrastructure of chloroplasts in wheat leaves, Chen Cheng understood the logic of chloroplasts in their life cycles.

In order for cells that have lost chloroplasts to reproduce chloroplasts, it is necessary to start from the principle of chloroplast production.

And the source of chloroplasts is preplastids.

Prelastlasts are the precursors of various types of plastids and can transform into chloroplasts, white bodies, and colored bodies.

Preplasts are found in undifferentiated cells of plant meristems and are coated by two membranes that contain a matrix and an endoplasmic reticulum as a precursor to thylakoids, as well as a plastid matrix.

The preplalast initially lacks a laminar membrane structure, and when it differentiates into a chloroplast under light, the inner membrane of the preplalast forms flat vesicles and is gradually arranged to produce basal and inter-basal membrane structures.

Sunlight stimulates the synthesis and transport of chloroplast proteins, and the inner membrane forms membrane vacuoles inward, and develops into mature chloroplasts by assembling proteins and chlorophyll.

Where is the preplastid most abundant?

Of course in the meristem cells of the rhizome.

As a component of the meristem of the new cell, the preplast is a kind of cell structure and belongs to macromolecules.

It is impossible for this macromolecule to be directly absorbed by mature cells. So now the question comes how to get mature cells to produce preplasts.

Although he has not yet found a final solution, he is moving forward step by step, and Chen Cheng feels that victory is ahead.

"Is it possible to develop a hormone that promotes the production of preplastisomes and administer it to wheat?" Chen Cheng thought on a whim.

Now that you have an idea, let's do a simulation experiment quickly.

Anyway, the supercomputer doesn't charge reputation.

"Search for hormones that promote preplastlast differentiation in cell differentiation?" Chen Cheng said.

【Okay】

Half a minute later...

[None]

Chen Cheng's face was full of black lines, you said it too directly.

But come to think of it, this common plant has been studied by scientists around the world for a long time, and there will certainly be no new hormones that have not yet been discovered.

But at this time, time is urgent, there are so many wild plants, where can I find plants that can produce this hormone?

Chen Cheng had to give up this technical route.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair.

Tired, really tired.

The process of letting the system do the experiments is equivalent to maintaining a high level of thinking, which makes him feel tired.

"Since mature cells can't be allowed to produce new pretoplasts, can they be brought over from somewhere else?"

Chen Cheng changed his mind again.

He knew that meristems contained a lot of preplasts, and he wondered if he could move them into these damaged leaf cells.

Macromolecules such as starch can operate in plant cells, and macromolecules such as preplasts should also work.

"Simulating the effect of running preplasts from meristems." Chen Cheng said.

【Okay】

Half a minute later...

[The preplasts are successfully operational, and the preplasts that enter the cell are successfully converted into chloroplasts under the action of sunlight and can work normally]

"It's finally done!" Chen Cheng said excitedly.

He hurriedly zoomed in on the leaf down to the cellular level, and then looked at the operation of the leaf cells.

As you can see, some of the preplasts in the meristem are transferred to these cells and then smoothly converted into chloroplasts.

Just as Chen Cheng was happy, the system spoke again.

【Due to the reduction of preplasts in meristems, the normal growth of wheat plants is affected, and the wheat growth period is extended by 10 days】

"10 days..."

Chen Cheng thought for a while, and immediately said: "At the same time, increase the application of auxin once, and simulate it again!" ”

【Okay】

A minute later...

【Wheat growing period extended by 4 days】

"4 days..."Chen Cheng felt that this was acceptable.

"Does it have an impact on wheat yields?"

[6% increase in production]

Although a 6% increase in production is not a very high figure, a stone in Chen Cheng's heart has finally landed.

At least it shows that this is the right path.

The only question that remains is how to promote the movement of preplasts in meristem cells into damaged cells.

Preplasts are essentially macromolecular compounds, so it is possible to find an induction method that can be directed to transfer.

When Wang Kai knocked on the door and asked Chen Cheng to go to dinner, Chen Cheng realized that this year's experiment had indeed taken too long.

Chen Cheng exited the system and went out to eat with them.

He didn't let them bring food today for the first time because today is December 31st, and tonight is the New Year's Eve.

You have to go out for a good meal.

Although the students of Agricultural University do not like to engage in various New Year's Eve carnivals like urban students, there are still simple celebrations for festivals like New Year.

Wang Kai ordered a meal at a "salt gang dish", saying that he wanted to invite everyone to rub it.

The five of them happily went.

Ding Tao's girlfriend Zhang Mengmeng also followed.