Genetic tweaks to three major crops dramatically boosted their growth—and what followed?

not many people know

Paul Homewood

h/t Philip Bratby

Who would have thought!

By the middle of this century, global food demand may grow by 60%. A core challenge is to use less land to meet this demand in a changing climate. Almost all carbon in crops is absorbed through Rubisco, which catalyzes slowly, reacts with oxygen, and is the main component of leaf nitrogen. Develop a more efficient form of Rubisco, or Engineering CO₂ Centralize mechanisms into C₃ Competitive suppression of oxygenation in crops is a major effort that can significantly increase photosynthetic productivity (≥60%). New technologies bring this goal closer, but improvements are still in the discovery stage and have yet to be implemented. A simpler short-term strategy that could fill this time gap, but with a smaller productivity increase (approximately 10%), is to increase leaf Rubisco content. This has been demonstrated in initial field trials to improve the productivity of C₃ and C₄ crop. Combining the three-dimensional leaf canopy with the metabolic model, it is inferred that a 20% increase in Rubisco can increase sugarcane canopy photosynthesis by 14% (C₄) and 9% in soybeans (C₃). This is consistent with the observed increases in productivity of rice, maize, sorghum, and sugarcane. It has been calculated that up-regulation of Rubisco does not require more nitrogen per unit of yield, and although this has so far been achieved through transgenes, it could be achieved through gene editing to produce transgene-free gain-of-function mutations or through breeding.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.20298

Everything is a bit mysterious!

But this is what it really means in English, as New Scientist reveals:

Simple changes to corn, sorghum and sugarcane that allow them to take advantage of rising CO2₂ levels can increase their growth rate by about a fifth.

The growth of corn, sugar cane and sorghum has been greatly enhanced by engineering plants to take advantage of higher carbon dioxide levels in the air.

Say, this is accomplished by simply increasing the activity of two genes Coralie Sasse Smith at the University of Illinois. The discovery should lead to the creation of new varieties whose yields increase with CO2₂ Levels continue to rise.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2460964-genic-tweak-to-Three-key-crops-massively-boosts-their-growth

Thank you Coralie and your colleagues.

You are doing what the right scientists have always done in the past and should do now. Contribute to understanding how the world works and find ways to make life better for all of us.

You shamed a bunch of charlatans and cowboys who hid behind fake computer models and told us we were destroying the planet.

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