Tao et al. (2023): Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar

Yumin Tao, Li-Wei Chiu, Jacob W. Hoyle, Rebecca A. Dewhirst, Christian Richey, Karli Rasmussen, Jessica Du, Patrick Mellor, Julie Kuiper, Dominick Tucker, Alex Crites, Gary A. Orr, Matthew J. Heckert, Damaris Godinez-Vidal, Martha L. Orozco-Cardenas, Madeline E. Hall IN: Forests 14(4), 827, https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040827

Harnessing the power of synthetic biology to enhance the natural ability of carbon sequestration in plants, especially non-annuals, provides a biological approach to further reduce CO₂ levels in the air. Here, the authors selected a photorespiration bypass pathway and tested its effectiveness on photosynthetic enhancement in a hybrid poplar, INRA717-IB4. The design includes an RNAi strategy to reduce the transportation of the photorespiration byproduct, glycolate, out of chloroplast and a shunt pathway to metabolize the retained glycolate back to CO₂ for fixation through the Calvin-Benson cycle.

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