Cell specific expression of genes in C4 photosynthesis

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By 2050, due to population growth we will need at least 50% more food than today. However, increases in the maximum yield of crops such as rice have plateaued. There are few biological precedents that show that yields can be increased by this order of magnitude, but C4 photosynthesis is one of them. It has therefore been proposed that placing characteristics of C4 photosynthesis into crops that currently use the less efficient C3 pathway should be attempted. Before this is feasible, we need a better basic understanding of how the C4 pathway operates. We have recently identified a region that is shared by multiple genes, and that generates BS specificity in leaves of the C4 plant C. gynandra. This is the first example of cell specificity in C4 leaves being generated by information within coding regions. In addition, this region is already present in orthologous genes from C3 species, and so shows that genes can be directly recruited into cell specific expression in C4 leaves without any change in sequence. We aim to define the nucleotides present in this region that generate BS specificity, to determine the extent to which other genes in the C4 cycle are regulated by elements within their coding regions, and also to define the extent to which genes from C3 species already possess elements that generate M or BS specificity in C4 leaves.