Overexpression of mulberry gene MaUSP1-like in tobacco reduces photosynthetic limitations and enhances biomass

Globally, concerted efforts are being made to enhance crop productivity, to meet the rising food demands. Improving the photosynthetic process is one of the thrust areas to enhance crop productivity. The present study using tobacco transgenics expressing MaUSP1-like, a gene cloned from Indian mulberry, demonstrates that crop biomass can be improved by minimizing the photosynthetic limitations. The transgenic plants exhibited significantly higher plant height, total leaf area and root growth, which improved the total biomass by 28%. The photosynthetic parameters estimated (V-cmax, J, TPU, and R-d) were significantly higher in the transgenic plants indicating an improvement in overall photosynthetic kinetics, partially overcoming the limitations associated with product utilization. The study demonstrated that minimizing the photosynthetic limitations contributes to enhanced photosynthetic efficiency. Hence, approaches/attempts to minimize photosynthetic limitations would be beneficial for increasing crop productivity in the future, especially in the era of changing climate.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates that reducing photosynthetic limitations can significantly enhance crop biomass and photosynthetic efficiency, which is of great importance for increasing crop productivity in the future.