Manipulating photorespiration to increase plant productivity: recent advances and perspectives for crop improvement

Marco Betti; Hermann Bauwe; Florian A Busch; Alisdair R Fernie; Olivier Keech; Myles Levey; Donald R Ort; Martin A J Parry; Rowan Sage; Stefan Timm; Berkley Walker; Andreas P M Weber

doi:10.1093/jxb/erw076

Manipulating photorespiration to increase plant productivity: recent advances and perspectives for crop improvement

J Exp Bot. 2016 May;67(10):2977-88. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erw076. Epub 2016 Mar 7.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Bioquímica Vegetal y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Química, 41012 Sevilla, Spain mbetti@us.es.
² Plant Physiology Department, University of Rostock, D-18051 Rostock, Germany.
³ Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
⁴ Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
⁵ Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University, S-90187 Umeå, Sweden.
⁶ Institute of Plant Molecular and Developmental Biology, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
⁷ Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service, Urbana, IL 61801, USA Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
⁸ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
⁹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3B2.
¹⁰ Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service, Urbana, IL 61801, USA Carl Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
¹¹ Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.

PMID: 26951371
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erw076

Abstract

Recycling of the 2-phosphoglycolate generated by the oxygenase reaction of Rubisco requires a complex and energy-consuming set of reactions collectively known as the photorespiratory cycle. Several approaches aimed at reducing the rates of photorespiratory energy or carbon loss have been proposed, based either on screening for natural variation or by means of genetic engineering. Recent work indicates that plant yield can be substantially improved by the alteration of photorespiratory fluxes or by engineering artificial bypasses to photorespiration. However, there is also evidence indicating that, under certain environmental and/or nutritional conditions, reduced photorespiratory capacity may be detrimental to plant performance. Here we summarize recent advances obtained in photorespiratory engineering and discuss prospects for these advances to be transferred to major crops to help address the globally increasing demand for food and biomass production.

Keywords: Crops; Rubisco; food production; genetic engineering; photorespiration; yield improvement..

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Carbon Dioxide / metabolism
Crop Production / methods*
Genetic Engineering / methods*
Photosynthesis / genetics*
Photosynthesis / physiology
Plant Development / genetics
Plants / genetics

Substances

Carbon Dioxide