TY - JOUR

T1 - Redesigning photosynthesis to sustainably meet global food and bioenergy demand

AU - Ort, Donald R.

AU - Merchant, Sabeeha S.

AU - Alric, Jean

AU - Barkan, Alice

AU - Blankenship, Robert E.

AU - Bock, Ralph

AU - Croce, Roberta

AU - Hanson, Maureen R.

AU - Hibberd, Julian M.

AU - Long, Steve

AU - Moore, Thomas A.

AU - Moroney, James

AU - Niyogi, Krishna K.

AU - Parry, Martin A. J.

AU - Peralta-Yahya, Pamela P.

AU - Prince, Roger C.

AU - Redding, Kevin E.

AU - Spalding, Martin H.

AU - Van Wijk, Klaas J.

AU - Vermaas, Wim F J

AU - Von Caemmerer, Susanne

AU - Weber, Andreas P M

AU - Yeates, Todd O.

AU - Yuan, Joshua S.

AU - Zhu, Xin Guang

PY - 2015/7/14

Y1 - 2015/7/14

N2 - The world's crop productivity is stagnating whereas population growth, rising affluence, and mandates for biofuels put increasing demands on agriculture. Meanwhile, demand for increasing cropland competes with equally crucial global sustainability and environmental protection needs. Addressing this looming agricultural crisis will be one of our greatest scientific challenges in the coming decades, and success will require substantial improvements at many levels. We assert that increasing the efficiency and productivity of photosynthesis in crop plants will be essential if this grand challenge is to be met. Here, we explore an array of prospective redesigns of plant systems at various scales, all aimed at increasing crop yields through improved photosynthetic efficiency and performance. Prospects range from straightforward alterations, already supported by preliminary evidence of feasibility, to substantial redesigns that are currently only conceptual, but that may be enabled by new developments in synthetic biology. Although some proposed redesigns are certain to face obstacles that will require alternate routes, the efforts should lead to new discoveries and technical advances with important impacts on the global problem of crop productivity and bioenergy production.

AB - The world's crop productivity is stagnating whereas population growth, rising affluence, and mandates for biofuels put increasing demands on agriculture. Meanwhile, demand for increasing cropland competes with equally crucial global sustainability and environmental protection needs. Addressing this looming agricultural crisis will be one of our greatest scientific challenges in the coming decades, and success will require substantial improvements at many levels. We assert that increasing the efficiency and productivity of photosynthesis in crop plants will be essential if this grand challenge is to be met. Here, we explore an array of prospective redesigns of plant systems at various scales, all aimed at increasing crop yields through improved photosynthetic efficiency and performance. Prospects range from straightforward alterations, already supported by preliminary evidence of feasibility, to substantial redesigns that are currently only conceptual, but that may be enabled by new developments in synthetic biology. Although some proposed redesigns are certain to face obstacles that will require alternate routes, the efforts should lead to new discoveries and technical advances with important impacts on the global problem of crop productivity and bioenergy production.

KW - Carbon capture/conversion

KW - Enabling plant biotechnology tools

KW - Light capture/conversion

KW - Smart canopy

KW - Sustainable crop production

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1424031112

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1424031112

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84937127897

VL - 112

SP - 8529

EP - 8536

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

SN - 0027-8424

IS - 28

ER -