Ort, Donald R. and Merchant, Sabeeha S. and Alric, Jean and Barkan, Alice and Blankenship, Robert E. and Bock, Ralph and Croce, Roberta and Hanson, Maureen R. and Hibberd, Julian M. and Long, Steve and Moore, Thomas A. and Moroney, James and Niyogi, Krishna K. and Parry, Martin A. J. and Peralta-Yahya, Pamela P. and Prince, Roger C. and Redding, Kevin E. and Spalding, Martin H. and Van Wijk, Klaas J. and Vermaas, Wim F J and Von Caemmerer, Susanne and Weber, Andreas P M and Yeates, Todd O. and Yuan, Joshua S. and Zhu, Xin Guang (2015) Redesigning photosynthesis to sustainably meet global food and bioenergy demand. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112 (28). pp. 8529-8536. ISSN 0027-8424
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
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.