CANBERRA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in ramping up photosynthesis that could significantly improve crop yields.
In a study published recently, researchers from Australian National University (ANU) turned back the evolutionary clock 1 billion years to change the rubisco activity of plants.
According to Spencer Whitney, co-author of the study from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis at ANU, rubisco is an enzyme that begins the process of converting carbon dioxide into plant sugars.
"But compared to other enzymes, rubisco is considered a slow, inefficient catalyst," he said in a media release.
"Many enzymes can process hundreds to thousands of molecules per second, but rubisco can only get through two to five cycles per second.
"For this reason, it's long been recognized as a good target for improving photosynthesis -- it's a puzzle scientists have been looking at for decades."
In order to improve the efficiency of rubisco, Whitney's team reapplied the genome design of the bacterial ancestors of chloroplasts.
"We've now turned back the clock a billion years to rectify this limitation," he said.
"By reapplying the genome design of the bacterial ancestors of chloroplasts we can now play around with all the components of rubisco simultaneously.
"This is crucial. To ramp up its activity you have to make changes to all the components."
The breakthrough could lead to major improvements in production from potatoes and canola crops in particular, according to the researchers.
"We know we can already tinker with rubisco activity in these crops, so it's a great place to start," Whitney said. "This is just the first step - this technology could eventually deliver something much bigger in the not so distant future." Enditem
