Plant physiology assignment

Name alka kumari mishra

Msc 1st year
Question 1
Write a few approaches that can be used to enhance
photosynthesis.
Answer:
Photosynthesis is the process by which plant fixes radiation energy
into chemical energy. By this process we get oxygen, food, energy
and other by product such as fuel, drugs etc. Approximately 100
billion tons of biomass produced per annum by this process, but still
this is not sufficient. Our world population increasing very rapidly
and it needs high amount of food biomass but we have limited land
for farming. It raises question how will we fulfill it. If we increase
photosynthesis rate, it will lead to high amount of carbon
assimilation and sucrose formation. We can say that rate of
photosynthesis is directly proportional to biomass production. But
how will we achieve it, For it we have to understand mechanism of
carbon assimilation. Mainly C3, C4 and CAM plants are found in our
nature. C3 plant are suitable in cool and wet environment. C4 plant
need warm condition and CAM are adaptable for desserts.
Mainly blue or red region of light (400-700nm) is absorbed by plants
for photosynthesis. In UV and infrared region there is no light
absorption. 400 to 700 nm wavelength comprises only 50% of total
light energy. Below 400nm UV range is present which can dissociate
protein and DNA of plant and above 700nm only few photons can be
absorbed rest is reflected or transmitted. For UV light absorption,
we can make machinery in plant in which it will not make direct
contact with DNA present in it or protein or DNA become resistant to
UV and plant will be able to capture high energy photons molecules.
In some bacteria infrared region light absorbed by chlorophyll a
with chlorophyll d and by chlorophyll f. if we engineered this
molecule in plant. Plant will capable to take high range of photons
molecule and photosynthetic rate can be increases.
All plant fixes CO2 by three carbon stable enzyme Rubisco. Which is
bifunctional enzyme having binding capability for both CO2 and O2.
This O2 binding ability reduce photosynthetic efficiency. When CO2
concentration is good in environment it has no harm but at present
condition 21% oxygen rich atmosphere is present which lead to high
competition between O2 and CO2 binding with Rubisco. When
Rubisco bind to oxygen photorespiration happen. For increasing
photosynthetic efficiency many approaches arise here. First one is if
we change rubisco binding affinity for O2 and CO2 or rubisco
kinetics by changing its amino acid sequence and it will only be
allowed to bind with carbon dioxide, it will increase photosynthetic
yield. Second one is if we concentrate carbon dioxide around
rubisco and reduces oxygen by compartmentalization which is
already found in C4 plant and if it possible to transfer this
machinery into C3 plant it will be helpful. If we create
photorespiration bypass my manipulating the enzyme involved in
this process it can also be beneficial. This bypass can be done by two
method. 1st one is if we activate enzyme involved in it the enzyme
will not accumulate and have not much effect. 2nd one is if we
repress the enzyme it will no longer active and photorespiration will
not occur.
Rubisco activase is an enzyme which activate Rubisco but it is heat
sensitive. That’s why at high temperature CO2 fixation gets inhibited.
If we engineered heat resistant feature in Rubisco activase it will be
beneficial for all type of plant and photosynthetic yield can be
increases.
Rate of photosynthesis depend upon the balance between
carboxylation and oxygenation. Carboxylation mainly depend upon
CO2 conc, mesophyll and stomatal conductance. Partial pressure
inside the chloroplast is lower than outside conc. When mesophyll
and stomatal conductance is low, photosynthesis rate is high. This
can be also one approach to increasing photosynthetic rate in plants.
And this can be possible by inhibiting aquaporins expression in cell
which facilitate CO2 diffusion in high rate. By introducing
carboxysomes in cell which control escaping of CO2 from cell and
provide high amount of CO2 in carbon fixation process.
Carotenoids can absorb wide range of light and transport it to the
other chlorophyll molecule. If we increase the number of carotenoid
molecule or overexpress it by some genome level manipulation, it is
possible to capture wide range of light. Form studies it is clear that if
system capture 100%light, only 26% if it utilized in carbon fixation
and rest of energy emitted as heat. If we manage to reduce heat
transformation rate and increase percentage of energy use in carbon
fixation then there will be chances to enhance the photosynthetic
rate.
Electron transport is crucial process of photosynthesis light reaction
because it produces ATP and NADPH. Which provide energy during
carbon fixation process. ATP is produced by electron-motive force
and NADPH is formed by transport of electron in a series from PSII to
PSI. If we increase proton motive force by pumping high amount of
hydrogen ion into the lumen it will form high number of ATP means
bound energy and it will utilize in carbon fixation process and rate of
photosynthesis will get enhance. It is found from early experiments
that mutation (expression lost) in cytochrome b/f complex of
electron transport leads to decrease in photosynthetic rate. if we
increase the overexpression of cytochrome b/f complex it is
possible to increase in electron transport rate as a result NADPH
formation rate will increases and photosynthesis can be enhanced.
Plant structure, leaf numbers, size and angle of leaf and overall
canopy structure influence the photosynthesis. Large area of leaf
able to perform photosynthesis with greater efficiency in low
irradiance. And these features are controlled by gene expression. If
we manipulate gene of plants in such a way that its canopy
structure can perform its best during photosynthesis process. There
will be chances of enhancement of photosynthesis.
Photoinhibition is the process in which excess light energy causes
reduction in photosynthesis process. In this process thylakoid gets
damage (D1 protein of PS II). Carotenoid or xanthophyll act as
photoprotective agent. In Xanthophyll cycle xanthophyll gets
activated under high stress light energy and it remains activated for
hours and recovery period is longer. But this delay is not desirable.
There should be high recovery rate because photosynthetic rate
depends on it. If we manipulate xanthophyll cycle in such a way by
genetic engineering that its recovery rate gets faster,
photosynthesis rate automatically gets increases. Photoprotection
can also be done by changing the canopies structure. As discuss
earlier lead size, leaf angle matters a lot in photosynthesis process. If
leaves are not in directly perpendicular to sun-light they can reduce
absorption of excess light.
In plant CO2 fixation is done by Celvin pathway or reductive pentose
phosphate pathway. It follows three steps: carboxylation, reduction
and regeneration. It includes various enzyme at every step e.g.
Rubisco, SBPase, FBPA, ADPglucose pyrophosphorylase etc. these
enzymes have greater influence on Celvin cycle and control CO2
assimilation. If we change the conc of these enzymes carbon
fixation rate gets affected. SBPase and Rubisco determine the
carbon fixation rate it was proved by many previous experiments. By
increasing number of Rubisco or with better Rubisco we can
increase photosynthesis rate. If with good rubisco, we increases
enzymes conc ( SBPase, FBPA, and ADPglucose pyrophosphorylase)
also in same plant, they can give cumulative effect and
photosynthetic rate can be enhanced. It can be very good approach
for increasing plant yield.
Manipulation in one gene cannot be sufficient for large change in
photosynthesis process. It will increase yield but at very low scale.
for large scale changes we should manipulate different target gene
at same time or we can say manipulation of more than two gene in
same plant. This should be done in such a way that it gives
cumulative or synergistic effect not antagonist. Example of such
multitarget manipulation can be combining the overexpression of
SBPase, FBPase with the expression of putative inorganic carbon
transporter B (ictB). This effect can increase CO2 fixation rate at high
rate. Other multitarget manipulation can be induce mechanism to
reduce photorespiration with overexpression of CB cycle enzyme,
or increasing waveband range absorption of light with decreasing
photoinhibition process with the development of highly
photoprotective agents, or overexpression of carotenoids with
overexpression of cytochrome b6/f, or increasing ATP synthase
activity with overexpression of CB cycle enzymes.
Summary of approaches that can be used for enhance
photosynthesis:
 Increase the number of Rubisco or engineered better rubisco in
plant.
 Reduce photorespiration.
 Increasing the waveband for photosynthesis.
 Overexpression of CB cycle enzyme.
 Increasing electron transport rate.
 Expression of more carotenoid.
 Changing canopy structure, leaf angle, leaf size.
 Decreasing recovery period of photoprotective agents.
 Manipulation of stomatal and mesophyll conductance.
  Engineering of CO2 concentrating machinery.
 Multitarget manipulation of machinery involve in
photosynthesis.

References:
1. Plant physiology book by Taiz and Zeiger, 5th edition
2. Improving photosynthesis review article by John R. Evans