Shortcutting Photorespiration Protects Potato Photosynthesis and Tuber Yield Against Heatwave Stress
Over two growing seasons, a chloroplast localized synthetic glycolate metabolic pathway expressed in potato, enhanced tuber biomass. We confirmed that this yield benefit did not come at the cost of tuber quality. In 2022, after two early season natural heatwaves, we observed enhanced daily carbon assimilation rates and increased photosynthetic capacity, with transformed plants having up to 23% higher V<sub>cmax</sub> and 13% higher J<sub>max</sub> during tuber bulking stages, indicating that transformed plants were better able to withstand growing season heatwaves than untransformed controls. The increases in photosynthetic capacity and potato tuber mass after early season heatwaves were greater than in seasons without heatwaves and present the AP3 pathway as a promising avenue for yield increases in the face of forecast increased intensity and duration of heatwave events as a result of global warming.
Authors
- Ryan A. Boyd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4009-7700)
- Paul F. South (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7885-7096)
- Nicholas Ferrari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5978-0839)
- Moon‐Sub Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3849-5611)
- Jooyeon Jeong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6882-8396)
- Ryan N. Dilger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2538-2845)
- Katherine Meacham‐Hensold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1198-5389)
- Steven Burgess (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2353-7794)
- Samantha S. Stutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3999-9726)
- Jessica Fowler
- Paul D. Sørensen
- Donald R. Ort (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5435-4387)
- Amanda P. Cavanagh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5918-8093)
- J. Larkin
Institutions
- University of Essex (GB)
- Louisiana State University (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Chungbuk National University (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Global Change Biology
- Published
- 2024-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17595
- Citations
- 21
- Primary Topic
- Plant responses to elevated CO2
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 12.59
Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
- Department for International Development
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign