Computational modelling predicts substantial carbon assimilation gains for C3 plants with a single-celled C4 biochemical pump.

ABSTRACT: Achieving global food security for the estimated 9 billion people by 2050 is a major scientific challenge. Crop productivity is fundamentally restricted by the rate of fixation of atmospheric carbon. The dedicated enzyme, RubisCO, has a low turnover and poor specificity for CO2. This limitation of C3 photosynthesis (the basic carbon-assimilation pathway present in all plants) is alleviated in some lineages by use of carbon-concentrating-mechanisms, such as the C4 cycle-a biochemical pump that concentrates CO2 near RubisCO increasing assimilation efficacy. Most crops use only C3 photosynthesis, so one promising research strategy to boost their productivity focuses on introducing a C4 cycle. The simplest proposal is to use the cycle to concentrate CO2 inside individual chloroplasts. The phot

SUBMITTER: Juric I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6786660 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature