Engineering photosynthesis: progress and perspectives

Orr, Douglas J.; Pereira, Airton dos Reis; Pereira, Paula da Fonseca; Pereira-Lima, Ítalo A.; Zsögön, Agustín; Araújo, Wagner L.

doi:10.12688/f1000research.12181.1

Cited by 43 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…Found in all photosynthetic organisms, Rubisco has been identified as a target for genetic manipulation and has thus been widely reviewed to date [21]. Enhancing photosynthesis, electron transport and photorespiration has been accepted as a key target for increasing crop productivity [22][23][24]. A recent comprehensive review by Simkin et al [23] has touched upon this potential.…”

Section: Photosynthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Engineering for Global Food Security: Photosynthesis and Biofortification

Simkin

2019

Plants

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Increasing demands for food and resources are challenging existing markets, driving a need to continually investigate and establish crop varieties with improved yields and health benefits. By the later part of the century, current estimates indicate that a >50% increase in the yield of most of the important food crops including wheat, rice and barley will be needed to maintain food supplies and improve nutritional quality to tackle what has become known as ‘hidden hunger’. Improving the nutritional quality of crops has become a target for providing the micronutrients required in remote communities where dietary variation is often limited. A number of methods to achieve this have been investigated over recent years, from improving photosynthesis through genetic engineering, to breeding new higher yielding varieties. Recent research has shown that growing plants under elevated [CO2] can lead to an increase in Vitamin C due to changes in gene expression, demonstrating one potential route for plant biofortification. In this review, we discuss the current research being undertaken to improve photosynthesis and biofortify key crops to secure future food supplies and the potential links between improved photosynthesis and nutritional quality.

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Section: Photosynthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Engineering for Global Food Security: Photosynthesis and Biofortification

Simkin

2019

Plants

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“…This threat is already apparent in developing countries, where 14.3% of the population was unable to access sufficient food in the years 2011–2013 (http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4037e.pdf). One way to increase the productivity of crops is to enhance their photosynthetic efficiency and thus the amount of fixed carbon, so that more food is produced per plant or per hectare …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other ambitious attempts to enhance CO 2 fixation in C 3 plants have included the expression of C 4 ‐like CCMs . The integration of cyanobacterial and algal CCM components has recently been proposed as an alternative approach, although its feasibility has yet to be demonstrated .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Integration of Algal Carbon Concentration Mechanism Components into Tobacco Chloroplasts Increases Photosynthetic Efficiency and Biomass

et al. 2018

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Increasing the productivity of crops is a major challenge in agricultural research. Given that photosynthetic carbon assimilation is necessary for plant growth, enhancing the efficiency of photosynthesis is one strategy to boost agricultural productivity. The authors attempted to increase the photosynthetic efficiency and biomass of tobacco plants by expressing individual components of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii carbon concentration mechanism (CCM) and integrating them into the chloroplast. Independent transgenic varieties are generated accumulating the carbonic anhydrase CAH3 in the thylakoid lumen or the bicarbonate transporter LCIA in the inner chloroplast membrane. Independent homozygous transgenic lines showed enhanced CO uptake rates (up to 15%), increased photosystem II efficiency (by up to 18%), and chlorophyll content (up to 19%). Transgenic lines produced more shoot biomass than wild-type and azygous controls, and accumulated more carbohydrate and amino acids, reflecting the higher rate of photosynthetic CO fixation. These data demonstrate that individual algal CCM components can be integrated into C plants to increase biomass, suggesting that transgenic lines combining multiple CCM components could further increase the productivity and yield of C crops.

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“…Synthetic biology approaches hold promise for improving a number of facets of photosynthetic efficiency in crop plants (Maurino and Weber, 2013;Erb and Zarzycki, 2016;Orr et al, 2017). One example is the introduction of CO 2 -concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) into C 3 crops to increase CO 2 concentrations at the site of Rubisco, a strategy that is likely to dramatically reduce the propensity of Rubisco to carry out oxygenation reactions by creating an environment that favors the beneficial carboxylation reaction (Price et al, 2011;McGrath and Long, 2014;Hanson et al, 2016;Long et al, 2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid Cyanobacterial-Tobacco Rubisco Supports Autotrophic Growth and Procarboxysomal Aggregation

et al. 2019

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Much of the research aimed at improving photosynthesis and crop productivity attempts to overcome shortcomings of the primary CO 2-fixing enzyme Rubisco. Cyanobacteria utilize a CO 2-concentrating mechanism (CCM), which encapsulates Rubisco with poor specificity but a relatively fast catalytic rate within a carboxysome microcompartment. Alongside the active transport of bicarbonate into the cell and localization of carbonic anhydrase within the carboxysome shell with Rubisco, cyanobacteria are able to overcome the limitations of Rubisco via localization within a high-CO 2 environment. As part of ongoing efforts to engineer a b-cyanobacterial CCM into land plants, we investigated the potential for Rubisco large subunits (LSU) from the b-cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus (Se) to form aggregated Rubisco complexes with the carboxysome linker protein CcmM35 within tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) chloroplasts. Transplastomic plants were produced that lacked cognate Se Rubisco small subunits (SSU) and expressed the Se LSU in place of tobacco LSU, with and without CcmM35. Plants were able to form a hybrid enzyme utilizing tobacco SSU and the Se LSU, allowing slow autotrophic growth in high CO 2. CcmM35 was able to form large Rubisco aggregates with the Se LSU, and these incorporated small amounts of native tobacco SSU. Plants lacking the Se SSU showed delayed growth, poor photosynthetic capacity, and significantly reduced Rubisco activity compared with both wild-type tobacco and lines expressing the Se SSU. These results demonstrate the ability of the Se LSU and CcmM35 to form large aggregates without the cognate Se SSU in planta, harboring active Rubisco that enables plant growth, albeit at a much slower pace than plants expressing the cognate Se SSU.

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Engineering photosynthesis: progress and perspectives

Cited by 43 publications

References 118 publications

Genetic Engineering for Global Food Security: Photosynthesis and Biofortification

Genetic Engineering for Global Food Security: Photosynthesis and Biofortification

The Integration of Algal Carbon Concentration Mechanism Components into Tobacco Chloroplasts Increases Photosynthetic Efficiency and Biomass

Hybrid Cyanobacterial-Tobacco Rubisco Supports Autotrophic Growth and Procarboxysomal Aggregation

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