Would transformation of C3 crop plants with foreign Rubisco increase productivity? A computational analysis extrapolating from kinetic properties to canopy photosynthesis

Genetic modification of Rubisco to increase the specificity for CO 2 relative to O 2 ( t ) would decrease photorespiration and in principle should increase crop productivity. When the kinetic properties of Rubisco from different photosynthetic organisms are compared, it appears that forms with high t t have low maximum catalytic rates of carboxylation per active site ( k c c ). If it is assumed that an inverse relationship between k c c and t exists, as implied from measurements, and that an increased concentration of Rubisco per unit leaf area is not possible, will increasing t result in increased leaf and canopy photosynthesis? A steady-state biochemical model for leaf photosynthesis was coupled to a canopy biophysical microclimate model and used to explore this question. C 3 photosynthetic CO 2 uptake rate ( A ) is either limited by the maximum rate of Rubisco activity ( V cmax ) or by the rate of regeneration of ribulose-1,5bisphosphate, in turn determined by the rate of whole chain electron transport ( J ). Thus, if J is limiting, an increase in t t t will increase net CO 2 uptake because more products of the electron transport chain will be partitioned away from photorespiration into photosynthesis. The effect of an increase in t on Rubisco-limited photosynthesis depends on both k

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