Boosting proteins to raise yields

A team at the US’ University of Illinois has published a study in the journal Science demonstrating that boosting the levels of three proteins connected to photosynthesis results in increasing crop yields by 20 percent, at least in respect of tobacco, according to a story in Nature World News relayed by the TMA.

The researchers, who used tobacco plants as the basis of their research into how to expand crop yields, focused on the plants’ nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ), a process whereby excess light absorbed by the leaves is released as heat energy.

Using a supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the team found that during NPQ, the plant’s ability to yield more volume reduces by between 7.5 percent and 30 percent depending on plant type and temperature.

They suggested that the plants might recover quicker from lowered NPQ if the three photosynthesis-related proteins were boosted.