this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2022
6 points (100.0% liked)

Science

13656 readers
41 users here now

Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
6
Bioengineering: Better Photosynthesis Increases Yields in Food Crops (www.sciencedaily.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

One of the scientists involved in this achievement started at the ground floor and after 25+ years of research finally pulled of the results to help alleviate world hunger.

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I was hoping this was about C3->C4 cycle.

The faster switching of photo protection seems not that promising for high intensity crops to minimize land and water use.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm ignorant. Can you explain what that means?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Some plants, most notably Maize, employ a more efficient photosynthesis step called C4 cycle. This allows then to convert significantly more sunlight into chemical energy that most other plants that use the so called C3 cycle.

There are long running efforts to genetically engineer other major food crops like wheat and rice to also use this C4 cycle. But so far this has not worked out.