New technology to boost photosynthetic efficiency could increase yields
A research team from the University of Illinois and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States published an article in the recently published journal Science, stating that their latest research shows that by modifying related genes in plants, it is possible to improve plant photosynthetic efficiency, increase plants' light-capturing capacity and biomass production, thereby increasing plant yields.
Plants respond adaptively to different degrees of light and shade. For example, when sunlight is directly overhead at noon, plants dissipate some light energy as heat to protect themselves. This protective mechanism is called "non-photochemical quenching." It can be activated quickly when strong sunlight is encountered, but the mechanism's speed of "recovery" to its natural state is relatively slow. If it does not shut off quickly enough, photosynthesis cannot work effectively.
Johannes Kromdijk of the University of Illinois and colleagues speculated that if the recovery mechanism of photosynthesis could be manipulated, it might lead to higher crop yields. The research team used tobacco as the research subject and modified 3 genes involved in the "non-photochemical quenching" process, speeding up the shutdown of this mechanism, which means the plants could more quickly improve photosynthetic efficiency in shade.
Under stable light conditions, the modified plants performed similarly to the control group; however, when light fluctuated, the modified plants' carbon dioxide fixation capacity and photosynthesis increased by 11% and 14%, respectively. The modified plants also had greater leaf area and height, and their total dry weight was 14%-20% more than that of the control plants.
The paper's authors reported that these modified plants grew similarly in greenhouses and in the field. In the coming decades, the global population's demand for food will increase substantially. This research remedies a "flaw" in photosynthesis and is expected to bring better crop harvests. Researchers are carrying out the same genetic modification on rice and other food crops, hoping to achieve similar yield-increasing results in these crops as well. (Reporter Jiang Jing)