Fine-tuning the green engine of life
Plants use sunlight to produce their own nutrients and energy, .
This process, called photosynthesis, is the green engine of life on Earth, and scientists are working on fine-tuning it, with some success.
Dutch plant scientist Wanne Kromdijk, working under the supervision of Steve Long at the University of Illinois in the US, recently published the results of experiments with tobacco plants.
They were able to increase the yield of the plant by 15%, a huge step in plant breeding terms, by tweaking a component of the plant’s photosynthesis process.
Light powers photosynthesis, but too much light can damage the machinery of photosynthesis.
If a plant is in the blazing sun, part of the absorbed light energy is simply “dumped”, and photosynthesis “shifts down a gear”, and only recovers when light intensity diminishes.
This means that a plant standing in fluctuating light is constantly “changing gears” — which is the case for most plants, due to the moving leaves of neighbouring plants or overhanging trees that sometimes block sunlight, but at other times let it shine through.
Steve Long’s team were able to built a “faster gearbox” into the tobacco plant, with spectacular yield results.
It is not the only spectacular result for scientists “playing” with photosynthesis.
British scientist Christine Raines was able to accelerate the functioning of an enzyme in photosynthesis, which resulted in a 30% yield increase.
According to René Klein Lankhorst of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, examples of super-photosynthesis are not only found in recent science, but also in nature.
He says the Formula 1 of photosynthesis involves desert plants, which sometimes have to wait years for rain.
When the rain finally comes, the seeds must quickly root, develop stems, leaves and flowers, and distribute new seeds.
“It is incredible, you can almost see the plants grow.”
It is an example which shows the scope for accelerating how photosynthesis.
Lankhorst says: “The crops we grow were not born for agriculture, we took them from the forests and placed them in fields.
“If they had completely adapted to these new conditions they would perform much better.
“A field of potatoes, for example, uses only 0.5% of the solar energy.
“This could be 5% to 10%.”
Even a doubling of production would resolve the food demand of the growing global population, and the demand for biomass for a green economy.
Accelerating photosynthesis also increases carbon dioxide absorption, which could make a considerable contribution to meeting climate agreement goals such as the Paris Agreement.
Photosynthesis researchers have welcomed the European Commission declaring yield improvement in agriculture a research funding priority, in view of the world’s major food, energy, and climate problems.
However, René Klein Lankhorst says industry, in sectors such as energy, chemicals, plant breeding and seed production, should also invest more. He says it’s hard to convince companies to invest in such a long-term project.
“We know that we will make significant progress, but we need ten to 15 years to realise applicable and responsible applications.”
He says a international research programme into photosynthesis would require funding of about €1bn.
