One of the major challenges facing rice breeding is to produce ideotype or ideal plant architecture (IPA) to improve canopy radiation use efficiency and hence grain yield. The hybrid japonica rice Jiayou Zhongke 6 (JYZK-6) is one of the benchmark cultivars with IPA characteristics, but the physio-ecological foundation of its high yield potential is still imperfectly understood. In this study, two-year field experiments were conducted using four japonica rice cultivars including JYZK-6 with contrasting canopy structures. A dynamic canopy light interception simulating device was constructed to capture canopy images representing the diurnal dynamics of solar angles throughout the grain-filling stage. Subsequently, leaf to panicle ratio (LPR), a newly developed physiological trait indicative of source-sink relations, was exploited to quantify the light distribution pattern within the rice canopy. The LPRs with high spatio-temporal resolution clearly showed the diurnal changes of light interception within the rice canopy. Genotypic differences in diurnal pattern of LPR were detected among the tested cultivars in both growing seasons, with the amplitude varying with grain-filling stages. Notably, LPR of the IPA cultivar JYZK-6 and its analogue WYJ-29, had a pattern of a V-shaped graph, peaking at sunrise and sunset while dropping to the lowest at noon during middle and late stages. Morphological measurement showed that the V-shaped pattern was associated with the height difference between flag leaf and panicle, panicle curvature, ratio of leaf area to panicle area, as well as the changing solar angles along with the progression of growth stage. This distinguishing feature of light pattern indicates that within the canopy of IPA cultivars, the leaf receives more light in the morning and afternoon whereas the panicle harvests more light at noon. It is inferred that such novel characteristics may provide the IPA cultivar with advantages of reducing midday suppression over the conventional cultivars, while more work is needed to verify this hypothesis. In summary, findings of this study offer a deeper insight into the physio-ecological processes underpinning radiation use efficiency at canopy level, and hence are valuable for breeding programs for ideotype cultivars.
