Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar

Tao, Yumin; Chiu, Li-Wei; Hoyle, Jacob W.; Dewhirst, Rebecca A.; Richey, Christian; Rasmussen, Karli; Du, Jessica; Mellor, Patrick; Kuiper, Julie; Tucker, Dominick; Crites, Alex; Orr, Gary A.; Heckert, Matthew J.; Godinez-Vidal, Damaris; Orozco-Cardenas, Martha L.; Hall, Madeline E.

doi:10.3390/f14040827

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar

by

Yumin Tao

^1,*,

Li-Wei Chiu

¹,

Jacob W. Hoyle

²,

Rebecca A. Dewhirst

¹,

Christian Richey

¹,

Karli Rasmussen

¹,

Jessica Du

¹,

Patrick Mellor

¹,

Julie Kuiper

¹,

Dominick Tucker

¹,

Alex Crites

¹,

Gary A. Orr

²,

Matthew J. Heckert

¹,

Damaris Godinez-Vidal

³

,

Martha L. Orozco-Cardenas

³

and

Madeline E. Hall

¹

Research & Development, Living Carbon PBC, Hayward, CA 94544, USA

²

Research & Development, Living Carbon PBC, Charleston, SC 29403, USA

³

The Plant Transformation Research Center, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Forests 2023, 14(4), 827; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040827

Submission received: 1 March 2023 / Revised: 12 April 2023 / Accepted: 13 April 2023 / Published: 18 April 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Biotechnology Techniques on Tree Species—Series II)

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Abstract

Increasing CO₂ levels in the atmosphere and the resulting negative impacts of climate change have compelled global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality or negativity. Most such efforts focus on carbon sequestration through chemical or physical approaches. Harnessing the power of synthetic biology to enhance the natural ability of carbon sequestration in plants, especially non-annuals, provides a biological approach to further reduce CO₂ levels in the air. Here, we selected a photorespiration bypass pathway and tested its effectiveness on photosynthetic enhancement in a hybrid poplar, INRA717-IB4. The design includes an RNAi strategy to reduce the transportation of the photorespiration byproduct, glycolate, out of chloroplast and a shunt pathway to metabolize the retained glycolate back to CO₂ for fixation through the Calvin-Benson cycle. Molecular and physiological data collected from two separate growth experiments indicate that transgenic plants expressing genes in the photorespiration bypass pathway have increased photosynthetic efficiency, leading to faster plant growth and elevated biomass production. One lead transgenic event accumulated 35%–53% more above-ground dry biomass over four months of growth in a controlled environment. Our results provide a proof of concept for engineering trees to help combat climate change.

Keywords: photorespiration bypass; glycolate dehydrogenase; malate synthase; transgenic poplar; climate change; PLGG1; Populus tremula × Populus alba

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MDPI and ACS Style

Tao, Y.; Chiu, L.-W.; Hoyle, J.W.; Dewhirst, R.A.; Richey, C.; Rasmussen, K.; Du, J.; Mellor, P.; Kuiper, J.; Tucker, D.; et al. Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar. Forests 2023, 14, 827. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040827

AMA Style

Tao Y, Chiu L-W, Hoyle JW, Dewhirst RA, Richey C, Rasmussen K, Du J, Mellor P, Kuiper J, Tucker D, et al. Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar. Forests. 2023; 14(4):827. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040827

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tao, Yumin, Li-Wei Chiu, Jacob W. Hoyle, Rebecca A. Dewhirst, Christian Richey, Karli Rasmussen, Jessica Du, Patrick Mellor, Julie Kuiper, Dominick Tucker, and et al. 2023. "Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar" Forests 14, no. 4: 827. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040827

APA Style

Tao, Y., Chiu, L.-W., Hoyle, J. W., Dewhirst, R. A., Richey, C., Rasmussen, K., Du, J., Mellor, P., Kuiper, J., Tucker, D., Crites, A., Orr, G. A., Heckert, M. J., Godinez-Vidal, D., Orozco-Cardenas, M. L., & Hall, M. E. (2023). Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar. Forests, 14(4), 827. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040827

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Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar

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