STTR Phase I: Modulating Antenna Size to Increase Canopy Photosynthesis and Crop Yield Potential

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目提出开发新的生物技术植物品系，提高冠层环境中的光合作用速率。 光合作用速率的提高将能够增加作物的内在产量。 光合作用是在个体而不是群体基础上进化的，导致农业环境中群体基础上的光合效率降低。 通过优化植物生理学，在农业环境中以人口为基础改善光捕获，该项目将改善光合固碳，从而提高作物产量。 该研究将利用合成生物学和代谢工程来确定导致植物生长和生物量积累显着增加的性状，并将确定这些增加的生理基础。 特别是，这项工作将阐明集光天线的分子特征，这些天线经过优化以有效捕获光，从而促进植物生长和生物量积累，而不会浪费能量。如果成功，该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发新性状，从而提高多种作物的产量。 所提出的方法是新颖的，并将导致光合作用的更好的理解，在农业环境中限制光合效率的因素。 通过开发能够提高作物产量的技术，该项目将有助于增加粮食供应和粮食安全，并将通过开发具有改良农艺性状的新作物品种，为农业部门提供巨大的商业机会。 这些新品种将为种子公司和种植者提供商业利益。 虽然农业生物技术部门提高产量的传统方法侧重于产量保护，但本项目将确定提高产量潜力的性状。 该项目开发的技术将增强现有的农业生物技术特性，提供额外的商业利益。 将第一阶段项目的成果转化为作物将提高作物产量，并通过改善粮食供应为种子公司、农民、性状开发者和整个社会带来重要利益。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project proposes to develop novel biotech plant lines with improved rates of photosynthesis in a canopy setting. The improved rates of photosynthesis will enable increases in intrinsic crop yield. Photosynthesis has evolved on an individual, rather than a population basis, resulting in reduced photosynthetic efficiency on a population basis in an agricultural setting. By optimizing plant physiology for improved light capture on a population basis in an agricultural setting, this project will improve photosynthetic carbon fixation, resulting in increased crop yields on an area basis. The research will utilize synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to identify traits that lead to significant increases in plant growth and biomass accumulation and will identify the physiological basis for these increases. In particular, this work will elucidate the molecular characteristics of light harvesting antennae that are optimized for efficient light capture leading to plant growth and biomass accumulation without wasteful dissipation of energy.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be the development of novel traits that will lead to improved yields across a wide range of crop plants. The proposed approach is novel, and will lead to an improved understanding of photosynthesis, and of the factors that limit photosynthetic efficiency in an agricultural setting. By developing technologies that will enable higher crop yields, this project will contribute to increased food availability and food security, and will provide an immense commercial opportunity to the agricultural sector through the development of novel crop varieties with improved agronomic traits. These new varieties will provide commercial benefit to seed companies and to growers alike. While traditional approaches to yield improvement in the agricultural biotechnology sector have focused on yield protection, this project will identify traits that increase yield potential. The technologies developed as a result of this project will augment existing agricultural biotechnology traits, providing added commercial benefit. Translating the results of this Phase I project to crop plants will result in improved crop yields and will provide important benefits to seed companies, farmers, trait developers, and to society as a whole through improved food availability.