Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 112, Issue 28, Pages 8529-8536Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1424031112
Keywords
light capture/conversion; carbon capture/conversion; smart canopy; enabling plant biotechnology tools; sustainable crop production
Categories
Funding
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the University of Illinois
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Corporate Sponsor Program
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/I017372/1, BB/I024488/1, BBS/E/C/00005202] Funding Source: researchfish
- BBSRC [BB/I017372/1, BB/I024488/1, BBS/E/C/00005202] Funding Source: UKRI
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems [1146597] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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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.
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