Plant biologists have bumped up crop productivity by increasing the expression of genes that result in more efficient use of light in photosynthesis, a finding that could be used to help address the world’s future food needs. The team found crop yield changes ranged from a reduction of one per cent to a 12 per cent increase, depending on the combination of photosynthetic targets, the crop … Get the latest science news with ScienceDaily's free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Applicability of the TLA concept was previously shown in green microalgae and cyanobacteria, but it has not yet been demonstrated in crop plants. The work to boost crop productivity comes as concerns about food shortages rise with the world’s population. However, the crops have some ability to adapt and resist against limited irrigation. This international research project is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), and the U.K. Government's Department for International Development (DFID). Scientists have found how to relieve a bottleneck in the process by which plants transform sunlight into food, which may lead to an increase in crop production. "Photosynthetic hacks can boost crop yield, conserve water." Note: Content may be edited for style and length. The team addressed this first bottleneck by helping plastocyanin share the load with the addition of cytochrome c6 -- a more efficient transport protein that has a similar function in algae. By boosting the expression of three genes involved in NPQ, they showed that NPQ turned off more quickly, and the efficiency of photosynthesis in the shade was higher. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200810113213.htm (accessed January 10, 2021). As a potential solution, researchers are applying synthetic biology to improve photosynthesis. They discovered that producing more of a protein that controls the rate in which electrons flow during photosynthesis, accelerates the whole process. Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) aims to improve photosynthesis to equip farmers worldwide with higher-yielding crops to ensure everyone has enough food to lead a … Photosynthesis is the basis of plant growth, and improving photosynthesis can contribute toward greater food security in the coming decades as world population increases. These two improvements, when combined, have been shown to increase crop productivity by 52 percent in the greenhouse. Keywords: Photosynthesis efficiency, abiotic stress, biotic stress, climate change, Multiple Stress Conditions, Crop productivity Important Note : All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they … Niyogi, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Division of Molecular Biophysics and Integrative Bioimaging, teamed up with Stephen Long, a plant biology and crop sciences professor at the University of Illinois, for the study. Plant biologists have bumped up crop productivity by increasing the expression of genes that result in more efficient use of light in photosynthesis, a finding that could be used to help address the world’s future food needs. The RIPE project and its sponsors are committed to ensuring Global Access and making the project's technologies available to the farmers who need them the most. Multiple targets have been identified that could be manipulated to increase crop photosynthesis. European Scientist: Scientists increase crop production by 47%. The C 4 photosynthetic pathway is a CO 2 -concentrating mechanism that generally enables C 4 plants to achieve greater efficiency in their use of light, nitrogen, and water than C 3 plants. The urgent need to achieve large improvements in crop photosynthetic efficiency has consequently catalyzed rapid recent progress in the use of synthetic biology as an approach to overcome the limitations of C 3 photosynthesis. Its efficiency is considered a key determinant of crop productivity. One strategy to improve photosynthetic yields is to replace a crop plant’s rubisco with a faster enzyme along with a carbon-concentrating mechanism. Next, the team plans to translate these discoveries from tobacco -- a model crop used in this study as a test-bed for genetic improvements because it is easy to engineer, grow, and test -- to staple food crops such as cassava, cowpea, maize, soybean and rice that are needed to feed our growing population this century. The RIPE project is an international effort led by the University of Illinois to develop more productive crops by improving photosynthesis -- the natural, sunlight-powered process that all plants use to fix carbon dioxide into sugars that fuel growth, development, and ultimately yield. Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is paving the way to increase crop production efficiency with electric lamps. Photosynthesis is an important biochemical reaction that forms the basis of all food chains. Inside two photosystems, sunlight is captured and turned into chemical energy that can be used for other processes in photosynthesis. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice. “My attitude is that it is very important to have these new technologies on the shelf now because it can take 20 years before such inventions can reach farmer’s fields,” said Long. "In our field trials, we discovered that these plants are using less water to make more biomass," said principal investigator Christine Raines, a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Essex where she also serves as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research. Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency is a translational research project that is genetically engineering plants to photosynthesize more efficiently to increase crop yields. At the same time, the team has improved a photosynthetic bottleneck in the Calvin-Benson Cycle -- wherein carbon dioxide is fixed into sugars -- by bulking up the amount of a key enzyme called SBPase, borrowing the additional cellular machinery from another plant species and cyanobacteria. Whether this greater photosynthetic efficiency during shading events would affect productivity was evaluated under field conditions in a randomized block … To find out what limits photosynthesis, researchers have modeled each of the 170 steps of this process to identify how plants could manufacture sugars more efficiently. Photosynthesis can be described by the simplified chemical reaction 6 H 2 O + 6 CO 2 + energy → C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2. where C 6 H 12 O 6 is glucose (which is subsequently transformed into other sugars, cellulose, lignin, and so forth). (2020, August 10). To capitalize on these advantages, attempts have been made to engineer the C 4 pathway into C 3 rice (Oryza sativa). Raising the water-use efficiency of both irrigated and rain-fed crop production is an urgent imperative (Hamdy et al., 2003).Of the world's allocatable water resource, c. 80% is currently consumed by irrigated agriculture.This level of consumption by agriculture is not sustainable into the future. This research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Greenhouse crop production: canopy photosynthesis, growth modelling, and spectrum conversion film 2. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), UC Berkeley, and the University of Illinois targeted three genes involved in a process plants use to protect themselves from damage when they get more light than they can safely use. "We have identified some steps that are slower, and what we're doing is enabling these plants to build more machines to speed up these slower steps in photosynthesis.". They used a new method to rapidly test gene expression in tobacco leaves. Niyogi and his postdoctoral research associates Lauriebeth Leonelli, Stéphane Gabilly, and Masakazu Iwai figured out a way to speed up recovery from photoprotection and demonstrated a proof of this concept in the laboratory. (Credit: Lauriebeth Leonelli and Matthew Brooks/UC Berkeley). Crop production is strongly dependent on the photosynthetic rates. Stimulating photosynthetic processes increases productivity and water-use efficiency in the field (Nature Plants) August 21, 2020 / in Plant Science Research Weekly / by Camila Ribeiro Yield potential in crops is determined by the efficiency of photosynthetic rates, which is a critical target for improvement. Photosynthesis is directly related to plant growth and crop production and any fluctuation in the photosynthetic activity imposes great threat to crop productivity. 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This is the third breakthrough for the research project Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE); however, this photosynthetic hack has also been shown to conserve water. In higher plants, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), the fraction of sunlight with wavelengths from 400 to 700 nm is harvested by the photosynthetic pigments of photosystems PSI and PSII. The researchers described their findings in a paper published today in the journal Science. These two improvements, when combined, have been shown to increase crop productivity by 52 percent in the greenhouse. The highly variable levels of light plants receive, particularly in densely planted crop fields, presents a challenge to the efficient use of solar energy. Photosynthetic efficiency and biomass productivity in rice largely decreased at cool temperatures (Nagai and Makino, 2009), and rice yield in northern regions of Japan is limited by low biomass accumulation in cool climates between spring and early summer. Photosynthesis in this leaf provides the majority of The flag leaf is the last to emerge, indicating the transition from crop growth to grain production. Photosynthesis and crop yield Photosynthesis is the primary determinant of crop yield, and the efficiency by which a crop captures light and converts it into biomass over the growing season is a key determinant of final yield, be that biomass or grain (Long et al., 2006). Plants contain the green pigment chlorophyll and they require light energy from the sun to photosynthesize and to grow. A number of plant features and traits, such as overall plant architecture, leaf structure and morphological features, vascular architecture and flowering time are important determinants of photosynthetic efficiency and hence the overall performance of crop plants. ScienceDaily, 10 August 2020. Questions? In photosynthesis, plants use the energy in sunlight to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into biomass, which we use for food, fuel, and fiber. Saturday, January 9 2021 Because C 2 plants suffer less net carbon loss from photorespiration, engineering C 2 photosynthesis into C 3 crops could therefore have a large impact on crop production. Photosynthesis and crop yield Photosynthesis is the primary determinant of crop yield, and the efficiency by which a crop captures light and converts it into biomass over the growing season is a key determinant of final yield, be that biomass or grain (et al., 2006Long ). Here we examine inefficiencies in photosynthetic energy transduction in crops from light interception to A factory's productivity decreases when supplies, transportation channels, and reliable machinery are limited. Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Due to the environmental fluctuations plants are often exposed to the different environmental stresses that cause decreased photosynthetic rate and problems in the plant growth and development. It has been recognized that ... overall crop productivity and grain yield. Therefore, improving photosynthetic efficiency has been a focus of intensive research. A transport protein called plastocyanin moves electrons into the photosystem to fuel this process. Stimulating photosynthetic processes increases productivity and water-use efficiency in the field. To achieve this, scientists are analyzing thousands of plants to find out what tweaks to the plant's structure or its cellular machinery could increase production. Vertical farming: environmental control, light analysis and phytochemical production 3. January 5, 2021 By: Claire Benjamin . The photosynthetic engine can’t work as efficiently.”. Plants must adapt to intermittent shading from leaves that are higher in the canopy, or from passing clouds. The flag leaf is the last to emerge, indicating the transition from crop growth to grain production. "Photosynthetic hacks can boost crop yield, conserve water." A team of scientists from the University of Essex has boosted crop productivity by 27 percent by resolving two bottlenecks in photosynthesis–the process whereby plants fix carbon dioxide into the sugars that fuel crop growth. More importantly, this study showed up to a 27 percent increase in crop growth in field trials, which is the true test of any crop improvement -- demonstrating that these photosynthetic hacks can boost crop production in real-world growing conditions. Photosynthetic capacity and efficiency are bottlenecks to raising productivity and there is strong evidence that increasing photosynthesis will increase crop yields provided that other constraints do … Introduction. Hanson and her lab are producing vectors that will install a novel cyanobacterial-based, carbon-concentrating mechanism into a chloroplast, and they are providing the necessary molecular machinery to facilitate its operation. NPQ turns off, but not quickly enough. “When there is too much sunlight, it’s like pressure building up,” said Niyogi. Whereas improved photosynthetic efficiency has played only a minor role in the remarkable increases in productivity achieved in the last half century, further increases in yield potential will rely in large part on improved photosynthesis. Plastocyanin requires copper and cytochrome requires iron to function. Have any problems using the site? Photosynthesis is the basis of primary productivity on the planet. “The molecular processes we’re modifying are fundamental to plants that carry out photosynthesis, so we hope to see a similar increase in yield in other crops.”. In the shade, the pressure in the engine decreases. Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Or view hourly updated newsfeeds in your RSS reader: Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks: Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Some limitations and adverse effects of NFs have also been reported. RIPE aims to increase agricultural production worldwide, particularly to help reduce hunger and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia by sustainably improving the yield of key food crops including soybeans, rice, … Users can select specific wavelengths to elicit targeted photomorphogenic, ... McCree KJ (1972) The action spectrum absorptance and quantum yield of photosynthesis in crop plants. ScienceDaily. efficiency of photosynthesis can be optimised by modifying the size of the photosynthetic light-harvesting antenna complex. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that food production will need to nearly double by 2050 to meet increasing demand. “Tobacco was used as the model crop plant in this study because it is easy to work with, but we’re working to make the same modifications in rice and other food crops,” said co-senior author Krishna Niyogi, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. RIPE's first discovery, published in Science, helped plants adapt to changing light conditions to increase yields by as much as 20 percent. The maximum yield attainable from a crop has been termed yield “NPQ turns on and gets rid of the excess energy safely. Overall, canopy architecture significantly affected canopy photosynthetic efficiency and water-use efficiency, suggesting that optimizing canopy structures can contribute to yield enhancement in crops. Red and yellow regions represent low NPQ activity, while blue and purple areas show high levels induced by exposure to light. "Like a factory line, plants are only as fast as their slowest machines," said Patricia Lopez-Calcagno, a postdoctoral researcher at Essex, who led this work for the RIPE project. April 24, 2020. However, photosynthetic efficiency remains standing as a determinant of yield potential with the improvement capacity to double crop productivity (1–3, 5, 6). The EC-funded project GAIN4CROPS is developing novel disruptive technologies to overcome one of the main constraints on photosynthetic efficiency: photorespiration, a process that reduces CO2 assimilation efficiency, and thus biomass yield and agricultural productivity. In rice plants, the flag leaf is the last to emerge, indicating the transition from crop growth to grain production. ... which would result in higher crop productivity. Keywords: Photosynthesis efficiency, abiotic stress, biotic stress, climate change, Multiple Stress Conditions, Crop productivity Important Note : All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they … Inside chloroplasts, plants have a system called NPQ, or nonphotochemical quenching, for this purpose. Crop production is strongly dependent on the photosynthetic rates. Photo contest deadline tonight! Submit photos for our photo contest at https://t.co/NsU070FXst for a chance to win college swag! In rice plants, the flag leaf is the last to emerge, indicating the transition from crop growth to grain production. Nature Plants. Niyogi compared NPQ to a pressure relief valve in a steam engine. "The mechanism responsible for this additional improvement is not yet clear, but we are continuing to explore this to help us understand why and how this works.". The photosynthetic efficiency is the fraction of light energy converted into chemical energy during photosynthesis in green plants and algae. "This study provides the exciting opportunity to potentially combine three confirmed and independent methods of achieving 20 percent increases in crop productivity," said RIPE Director Stephen Long, Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois. ScienceDaily shares links with sites in the. Thus, solar-to-biomass energy conversion efficiency and photosynthetic productivity in high-density cultures can be increased. Here’s to a 2021 where CHC eventually won’t have to exist because…, a new method to rapidly test gene expression. Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) aims to improve photosynthesis to equip farmers worldwide with higher-yielding crops to ensure everyone has enough food to lead a healthy, productive life. RIPE is led by the University of Illinois in partnership with The Australian National University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Lancaster University, Louisiana State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Cambridge, University of Essex, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. For 50 years scientists have striven to boost the activity of Rubisco, a promising target to increase crop production, as it controls how much and how fast plants fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into sugars and energy during photosynthesis. Scientists engineered plants with a photosynthesis “shortcut” to increase crop production by up to 40%, according to a research article published in Science journal. Saturday, January 9 2021 While much has to be done to improve energy efficiency and waste management of agriculture, crop productivity also has to be increased by 70% to feed a human population growing by 34% and estimated to reach 9.1 billion till 2050 . Illinois postdoctoral researchers Johannes Kromdijk and Katarzyna Glowacka took the trio of genes studied at Berkeley and put them into tobacco plants for further testing in greenhouse and field experiments. Here, we explore an array of prospective redesigns of plant systems at various scales, all aimed at increasing crop yields through improved photosynthetic efficiency and performance. Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated. "Our modeling suggests that stacking this breakthrough with two previous discoveries from the RIPE project could result in additive yield gains totaling as much as 50 to 60 percent in food crops.". These findings represent a breakthrough in bioengineering plants to achieve efficient photosynthesis and increase crop productivity under normal and heat-stress conditions. Therefore, improving photosynthetic efficiency has been a focus of intensive research. Patricia E. López-Calcagno, Kenny L. Brown, Andrew J. Simkin, Stuart J. Fisk, Silvere Vialet-Chabrand, Tracy Lawson, and Christine A. Raines. The project's second breakthrough, also published in Science, created a shortcut in how plants deal with a glitch in photosynthesis to boost productivity by 20 to 40 percent. . This means that it may be possible to mix and match the regulatory components of light harvesting from different clades of photosynthetic organisms to fine-tune the efficiency of photosynthesis.” The researchers said the CVDE enzyme could be used to optimize photoprotection and thereby improve photosynthesis and crop productivity. ANRV410-PP61-11 ARI 8 April 2010 0:47 Improving Photosynthetic Efficiency for Greater Yield Xin-Guang Zhu,1,2,3 Stephen P. Long,3,4 and Donald R. Ort3,4,5 1CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, SIBS, Shanghai, China 200031 2Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, SIBS, Shanghai, China 200032 3Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, … When there is too much sunlight, the photosynthetic machinery in chloroplasts can be damaged, so plants need photoprotection. In this study, the team increased crop growth by 27 percent by resolving two constraints: one in the first part of photosynthesis where plants transform light energy into chemical energy and one in the second part where carbon dioxide is fixed into sugars. In this work, the TLA concept was applied in high-density tobacco canopies. 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