, Ltd., Ningbo, China), 4.5 m × 1.5 m × 1.7 m (length × width × height) in size. The air

temperature and relative humidity in the chamber were controlled using signaling pathway electric resistance heaters and a bubbling system. The air temperature in the chamber at nighttime (19:00 to 7:00) was maintained at 25–28 °C with a wind speed of 0.5 m s− 1. The relative humidity was maintained at 75%–85%, similar to that of the unwarmed control environment. The air temperatures in the rice canopy in the chamber and the ambient environment were monitored every 10 min at night with a Thermo Recorder (ZDR-41, Zeda Instrument Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China). The differences in rice canopy air temperatures at nighttime were automatically adjusted to approximately 3.0–3.5 °C higher in the chamber than in the ambient control environment (Fig. 1). Germinated rice seeds were sown in plastic boxes on 13 May 2010. After one month of growth, rice seedlings were transplanted to Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor the plastic pots. There were two holes seedlings for each pot and two seedlings for each hole. Fertilizer was applied as 0.75 g N, 0.38 g P2O5 and 0.38 g K2O per pot. All of the P2O5 and K2O and 50% of the N were applied

as basal dressing. Half of the remaining N was applied as side dressing at the early tillering stage in the latter of June, and the rest of the N was applied at panicle initiation in the latter part of August. Water depth in all pots was maintained at about 5 cm above the soil surface during the entire rice growing cycle. All pots were kept under ambient conditions outside the chamber before rice anthesis. During the post-anthesis phase, half of the pots were

placed in the chamber for 12 h at night (from 19:00 to 7:00) and moved outside after 7:00 every day. The warmed and unwarmed pots were kept in the same ambient environment at the daytime from 7:00 to 19:00 every day during the post-anthesis phase. At the anthesis and maturity stages, plants from three pots of each treatment were sampled and divided into leaf, stem, and panicle. All plant samples were oven-dried at 80 °C for 24 h and weighed. Post-anthesis biomass accumulation was calculated as the difference in total aboveground dry matter between the anthesis stage and harvest. Nine pots from each treatment were harvested to determine grain yield and its components. At 0, 21 and Chorioepithelioma 35 days post-anthesis (DPA), fifteen flag leaves of main stems were selected for measurements of net photosynthesis rate (from 9:00 to 11:00) and night respiration rate (from 22:00 to 23:00) with a portable photosynthesis system (Li-6400; Li-Cor, Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA). Another fifteen flag leaves were sampled in each treatment at 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35 DPA for measurements of chlorophyll a and b contents by the method of aqueous acetone extraction [13]. At the anthesis stage, approximately 200 rice panicles were labeled for the determination of grain filling rate.