Bioengineering: Better photosynthesis increases yields in food crops



For the first time, RIPE researchers have demonstrated in field tests that multigene photosynthetic bioengineering boosts the yield of a significant food crop. After more than ten years of effort, a multidisciplinary team led by the University of Illinois has successfully transgenically modified soybean plants to boost photosynthetic efficiency, resulting in higher yields without compromising quality.

Results of this importance could not have arrived at a more critical moment. According to the most recent UN report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022, nearly 10% of the world's population experienced hunger in 2021, a problem that has been steadily getting worse over the past few years and is now more severe than all other risks to the world's health combined. More than 660 million people are anticipated to experience food scarcity and malnutrition by 2030, according to UNICEF. Ineffective food supply chains (access to food) and more difficult crop-growing circumstances as a result of climate change are two of the main contributors to this. The main objectives of this study and the RIPE project are to increase food access and increase the sustainability of food crops in underdeveloped areas.

Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), a global research initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, aims to boost photosynthetic efficiency in food crops for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Project researcher and principal author Amanda De Souza stated, "Projections clearly suggest that there needs to be a shift at the food supply level to change the trajectory. The number of individuals affected by food insufficiency is continuing to rise. "Our research demonstrates a practical means of enhancing food security for those who need it most while preventing the need for additional farmland. A significant opportunity to achieve the required increase in yield potential is to improve photosynthesis."

RIPE researchers have been striving to improve photosynthesis for more than ten years. Photosynthesis is the natural process that all plants utilize to transform sunlight into energy and produce. The team conducted field trials to see whether yield would increase as a result of improving the VPZ architecture within the soybean plant in this groundbreaking study, which was just published in Science.

Three genes that encode proteins for the xanthophyll cycle, a pigment cycle that aids in the photoprotection of plants, are found in the VPZ construct. Once under full sunshine, the cycle in the leaves is turned on to shield them from harm and enable leaves to release the extra energy. However, this photoprotection must be turned off when the leaves are covered (by other leaves, clouds, or the sun moving in the sky) so the leaves can continue the photosynthetic process with a reserve of sunlight. The time it would have taken the plant to begin photosynthesis is lost as it takes several minutes for the defensive mechanism to be turned off.

Every time a leaf changes from being in the light to being in the shade, the photoprotection switches off more quickly thanks to the overexpression of the three genes from the VPZ construct. The total rate of photosynthetic activity rises as a result of an increase in the number of minutes that leaves spend in photosynthesis. This study has demonstrated that seed quality was unaffected despite a yield increase of more than 20%.

"The protein content of the seeds was unchanged despite a larger yield. This indicates that some of the additional energy from improved photosynthesis was probably directed to the nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the plant's nodules "Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at Illinois' Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and RIPE Director Stephen Long.

Due of the ease with which the crop's genetics can be altered and the quantity of seeds that can be produced from a single plant, the researchers initially tested their theory on tobacco plants. These elements enable scientists to move from genetic modification to a field trial in a matter of months. After the theory had been demonstrated in tobacco, scientists turned their attention to the trickier challenge of incorporating the genetics into a food crop, soybeans.

Given that soybeans and tobacco, two very different crops, have both seen extremely significant production gains, Long asserted that this has broad applicability. "Our research demonstrates how the environment has a significant impact on yield improvement. To guarantee the environmental stability of the gain, it is crucial to ascertain whether this outcome can be repeated across contexts and with additional enhancements."

With findings anticipated in early 2023, more field trials of these transgenic soybean plants are being carried out this year.

The main result of this research, according to De Souza, "is to pave the way for demonstrating that we can bioengineer photosynthesis and boost yields to increase food supply in important crops." It is the first step in confirming that the concepts established by the RIPE project are an effective way to increase production in important food crops.

The RIPE project and its backers are dedicated to securing Global Access and making the project's innovations accessible to the farmers who need them the most.

For me personally, this has been a journey that has lasted more than 25 years, said Long. "Starting with a theoretical examination of the theoretical efficiency of crop photosynthesis, high-performance computing was used to simulate the entire process, and then optimization techniques were used to identify numerous bottlenecks in the process in our crops. We have now been able to build solutions to some of these identified constraints and test the products in the field thanks to funding support over the previous ten years. It is incredibly satisfying to see such a great outcome for the team after years of struggle."

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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