- South, along with colleagues from the University of Illinois, have now found a way to reduce this “glitch” by creating a new pathway through which photorespiration can happen. Instead of being a long, energy intensive process, the team created a “shortcut” to reduce the amount of energy it used. They tested out the technique on tobacco plants and found production was boosted by up to 40 percent. Their findings are published in the journal Science.
Tobacco plants were used as a model system because they are easy to manipulate genetically, have a fast life cycle and produce lots of seeds. “Now that we have achieved proof of concept, we are moving this technique into food crops for testing and because photosynthesis and photorespiration are highly conserved amongst plant species the benefits observed in tobacco should show an effect in other crops,” South said. They now plan to carry out field trials with potato plants. They will also start creating new pathway designs for crops like cowpea, soybean, rice, and tomato. South said it will probably take about 10 years before these crops make it to dinner plates because of regulatory restrictions. However, if trials are successful, these engineered plants could help curb the problem of food security.
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