Feeding from the sun-Successes and prospects in bioengineering photosynthesis for food security
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Bioengineering advances have enhanced photosynthesis, boosting crop yields to combat food insecurity. Future targets, like carbon-concentrating mechanisms, promise even greater gains for sustainable agriculture.
Area Of Science
- Agricultural Science
- Biotechnology
- Plant Biology
Background
- Increased crop productivity is crucial for global food security and sustainable agriculture.
- Photosynthesis, the process converting light to energy, has inherent inefficiencies limiting crop yields.
- Bioengineering offers strategies to enhance photosynthetic efficiency and crop output.
Purpose Of The Study
- To review advancements in improving photosynthesis over the past decade.
- To quantify the potential of future engineering targets for crop improvement.
- To highlight strategies that have successfully increased crop yields.
Main Methods
- Review of recent bioengineering strategies applied to photosynthesis.
- Analysis of field trial data demonstrating yield enhancements.
- Modeling of potential gains from advanced engineering approaches like carbon concentration.
Main Results
- Simple strategies, such as increasing photosynthetic proteins, have reliably improved photosynthesis and crop yields.
- More complex strategies, including bypassing photorespiration, also show proven enhancements.
- Engineering carbon-concentrating mechanisms into C3 plants presents challenges but offers the greatest potential gains.
Conclusions
- Significant progress has been made in enhancing photosynthesis through bioengineering.
- Future engineering efforts hold substantial promise for further increasing crop productivity.
- Targeting photosynthesis is a key strategy for addressing food insecurity and promoting sustainable agriculture.
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
Related Concept Videos
Photosynthesis is a multipart, biochemical process that occurs in plants as well as in some bacteria. It captures carbon dioxide and solar energy to produce glucose. Glucose stores chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates. The overall biochemical formula of photosynthesis is 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + Light energy → C6H12O6 + 6 O2. Photosynthesis releases oxygen into the atmosphere and is largely responsible for maintaining the Earth’s atmospheric oxygen content.
Photosynthetic reactions...
All living organisms on Earth are directly or indirectly dependent on photosynthesis. It is the only biological process that can capture energy from sunlight and convert it into chemical energy that every organism can use to power its metabolism. Photosynthesis is also the source of oxygen required by many living organisms.
Types of Organisms Based on their Modes of Nutrition
Broadly, there are two main categories of organisms based on their modes of nutrition — autotrophs and...
The light reactions of photosynthesis assume a linear flow of electrons from water to NADP+. During this process, light energy drives the splitting of water molecules to produce oxygen. However, oxidation of water molecules is a thermodynamically unfavorable reaction and requires a strong oxidizing agent. This is accomplished by the first product of light reactions: oxidized P680 (or P680+), the most powerful oxidizing agent known in biology. The oxidized P680 that acquires an electron from the...
Oxygenic photosynthesis is a fundamental process in which light energy is harnessed to drive the oxidation of water, leading to the production of molecular oxygen (O₂), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). This process is essential for sustaining aerobic life on Earth and is primarily carried out by cyanobacteria, algae, and plants. The core of oxygenic photosynthesis lies in the thylakoid membranes, where chlorophyll pigments facilitate...
Ribulose 1,5- bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo) is a critical enzyme that catalyzes carbon dioxide assimilation during photosynthesis. However, it is an inefficient enzyme, having an extremely slow catalytic rate. A typical enzyme can process about a thousand molecules per second; however, RuBisCo fixes only around three-carbon dioxides per second. Photosynthetic cells compensate for this slow rate by synthesizing very high amounts of RuBisCo, making it the most abundant single...
Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.
As humans' understanding of genetics advanced, improved crop varieties could be achieved more quickly. Artificial selection could be more directed, and crop varieties enhanced for favorable traits more quickly to produce better, more robust, or more palatable...