BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Increasing crop productivity by engineering an alternative photore
 spiration pathway - Dr Amanda Cavanagh\, Illinois
DTSTART:20190417T110000Z
DTEND:20190417T120000Z
UID:TALK122014@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Johannes Kromdijk
DESCRIPTION:Meeting food demands for the growing global human population r
 equires improving crop productivity\, and large gains are possible through
  enhancing photosynthetic efficiency. Photosynthesis requires the carboxyl
 ation of ribulose-1\,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) by ribulose-1\,5-bisphosphate c
 arboxylase-oxygenase (RuBisCO)\, but photorespiration occurs in most plant
 s such as soybean\, rice\, and wheat (known as C3 crops) when RuBisCO oxyg
 enates RuBP instead\, requiring costly processing of toxic byproducts such
  as glycolate. Photorespiration can reduce C3 crop photosynthetic efficien
 cy by 20 to 50%. Multiple attempts have been undertaken to overcome this y
 ield penalty and thereby increase biomass production in plants\, with limi
 ted success to date. In this seminar I will present our recent results wit
 h a synthetic pathway that fully detoxifies 2-PGlycolate inside plant chlo
 roplasts. Field grown transgenic tobacco plants expressing this pathway sh
 ow strongly enhanced biomass production\, suggesting that our manipulation
 s could be used to improve crop yields.\n\nAmanda is a postdoctoral resear
 cher at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (University of Ill
 inois) and she will present some of her breakthrough results\, that recent
 ly made headlines (Synthetic glycolate metabolism pathways stimulate crop 
 growth and productivity in the field. Science 363 (6422) p45).
LOCATION:Tom ap Rees\, Department of Plant Sciences
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR