Adapting C 4 photosynthesis to atmospheric change and increasing productivity by elevating Rubisco content in sorghum and sugarcane

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2419943122
• Publication Date: 2025-02-11T18:42:16Z
• Authors: Coralie E. Saless...; Noga Adar; Baskaran Kannan; Thaibinhduong Nguyen; Wei Wei; Ming Guo; Zhengxiang Ge; Fredy Altpeter; Tom E. Clemente; Stephen P. Long
• Keywords: C4 Photosynthesis

Meta-analyses and theory show that with rising atmospheric [CO 2 ], Rubisco has become the greatest limitation to light-saturated leaf CO assimilation rates ( A sat ) in C 4 crops. So would transgenically increasing increase result increased productivity field? Here, we successfully overexpressed small subunit RbcS accumulation factor 1 Raf1 both sorghum sugarcane, resulting significant increases content of 13 25% up 90% respectively. 12 15% enzyme activity ~40% three independent transgenic events species. Sorghum plants also showed speeds photosynthetic induction decreased bundle sheath leakiness. These improvements translated into average 15.5% biomass field-grown a 37 81% greenhouse-grown sugarcane. This suggests potential opportunity achieve substantial this key economically important clade crops, future proofing their value under global change.