The second of three major steps needed in turbocharging photosynthesis in
crops such as wheat and rice was completed by researchers from Cornell
University in the United States, and Rothamsted Research in the United
Kingdom. The team, led by Myat Lin in Cornell and Alessandro Occhialini in
Rothamsted, successfully transferred genes from cyanobacteria into tobacco
plants. The genes allow the plant to produce a more efficient enzyme for
converting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into sugars and other
carbohydrates, something that could boost yields by around 36 to 60 percent.


The Cornell and Rothamsted researchers replaced the gene for a carbon-fixing
enzyme called Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo) in a
tobacco plant with two genes for a cyanobacterial version of RuBisCo, which
works faster than the plant's original enzyme. Crops with cyanobacteria's
faster carbon fixation would yield more, according to a computer modeling
study by Justin McGrath and Stephen Long at the University of Illinois.
Maureen Hanson, plant molecular biology professor at Cornell, said, "This is
the first time that a plant has been created through genetic engineering to
fix all of its carbon by a cyanobacterial enzyme. It is an important first
step in creating plants with more efficient photosynthesis."

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