C2 photosynthesis : a promising route towards crop improvement?

Lundgren, Marjorie (2020) C2 photosynthesis : a promising route towards crop improvement? New Phytologist, 228 (6). pp. 1734-1740. ISSN 0028-646X

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Abstract

C2 photosynthesis is a carbon concentrating mechanism that can increase net CO2 assimilation by capturing, concentrating, and re-assimilating CO2 released by photorespiration. Empirical and modelling studies indicate that C2 plants assimilate more carbon than C3 plants under high temperature, bright light, and low CO2 conditions. I argue that engineering C2 photosynthesis into C3 crops is a promising approach to improve photosynthetic performance under these, and temporally heterogeneous, environments and review the modifications that may re-create a C2 phenotype in C3 plants. While a C2 engineering program would encounter many of the same challenges faced by C4 engineering programs, the simpler leaf anatomical requirements make C2 engineering a feasible approach to improve crops in the medium term.