Campus Units
Genetics, Development and Cell Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2015
Journal or Book Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
112
Issue
28
First Page
8529
Last Page
8536
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1424031112
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.
Rights
Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Ort, Donald R.; Merchant, Sabeeha S.; Alric, Jean; Barkan, Alice; Blankenship, Robert E.; Bock, Ralph; Croce, Roberta; Hanson, Maureen R.; Hibberd, Julian M.; Long, Stephen P.; Moore, Thomas A.; Moroney, James; Niyogi, Krishna K.; Parry, Martin A.J.; Peralta-Yahya, Pamela P.; Prince, Roger C.; Redding, Kevin E.; Spalding, Martin H.; van Wijk, Klass J.; Vermaas, Wim F.J.; Caemmerer, Susanne von; Weber, Andreas P.M.; Yeates, Todd O.; Yuan, Joshua S.; and Zhu, Xin Guang, "Redesigning photosynthesis to sustainably meet global food and bioenergy demand" (2015). Genetics, Development and Cell Biology Publications. 168.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/gdcb_las_pubs/168
Included in
Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, Plant Breeding and Genetics Commons
Comments
This article is published as Ort, Donald R., Sabeeha S. Merchant, Jean Alric, Alice Barkan, Robert E. Blankenship, Ralph Bock, Roberta Croce et al. "Redesigning photosynthesis to sustainably meet global food and bioenergy demand." Proceedings of the national academy of sciences 112, no. 28 (2015): 8529-8536. 10.1073/pnas.1424031112. Posted with permission.