Edward Smith

Edward Smith

@tednsmith.bsky.social

Biochemist using flux analysis to investigate the amazing metabolism of plants 🌱🌿🌵👨‍🔬

774 followers179 following16 posts

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

A big month for engineering photorespiration! More evidence that bypassing photorespiration in rice by converting glycolate to CO2 in chloroplasts can boost yields. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... More work needed to ensure gains reach the grains 🍚 but another promising step forward! 🧵

sciencedirect.comA synthetic glycolate metabolism bypass in rice chloroplasts increases photosynthesis and yieldPhotorespiration consumes photosynthetically fixed carbon and reduces yields by 20%–50% in C3 crops. In an attempt to increase photosynthetic efficien…
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Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

2/ The CO2 compensation point (CO2 conc. where net CO2 release is zero) usually drops with this bypass, but here it rose. Maybe due to species-specific differences in CO2 diffusion paths? More modelling needed to figure this out!

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

3/ Compare this to recent potato studies: doi.org/10.1111/gcb...., doi.org/10.1111/pbi.... Matching the right pathway to the right crop species in the right growing conditions will be key to unlocking this tech’s huge potential!

doi.orgShortcutting Photorespiration Protects Potato Photosynthesis and Tuber Yield Against Heatwave StressOver 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 t...
Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

A big month for engineering photorespiration! More evidence that bypassing photorespiration in rice by converting glycolate to CO2 in chloroplasts can boost yields. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... More work needed to ensure gains reach the grains 🍚 but another promising step forward! 🧵

sciencedirect.comA synthetic glycolate metabolism bypass in rice chloroplasts increases photosynthesis and yieldPhotorespiration consumes photosynthetically fixed carbon and reduces yields by 20%–50% in C3 crops. In an attempt to increase photosynthetic efficien…
Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

1/ Blocking glycolate export from chloroplasts has previously been shown to be a good strategy - but here it resulted in worse performance in the field. With this type of bypass some native photorespiration can be beneficial so fine-tuning this could be a next step.

Edward Smith reposted

GAIN4CROPS
@gain4crops.eu

Our team recently published important findings in Science Advances on improving crop efficiency! Read the press release to learn more. 🌻 #PlantScience #SustainableAgriculture #FoodSecurity #EUResearch gain4crops.eu/beyond-photo...

gain4crops.euBeyond photorespiration: A systematic approach to unlocking enhanced plant productivityNew research from GAIN4CROPS partners provides critical insights into overcoming one of agriculture’s most costly inefficiencies.

Edward Smith reposted

Andrew D Hanson
@adhansonlab.bsky.social

Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter. Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce') Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations doi.org/10.1093/plph...

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

2. The GOC pathway had the biggest improvement under high-light conditions. Reassuringly this matches our recent modelling work which also predicted other alternative pathways - like those that fix additional CO2 - could perform even better than the pathway described in this paper.

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

1. The pathway increased yields even under adverse conditions such as heavy rain, low light and waterlogging. This is super important to mitigate the effects climate change can have on weather patterns.

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

Really impressive work from Ari and the team - going from an idea all the way to a functional pathway using the latest synbio tools! The CORE cycle is another carbon fixing route that could be used as an alternative to photorespiration in plants. Interested to see where this goes next! 🌱📈

Ari Satanowski@ari-satanowski.bsky.social

Excited to share a main project from my PhD, out now in @naturecomms.bsky.social! 📝 We've designed and brought to life the “CORE cycle” – a new-to-nature pathway that provides a novel route for biological CO2 capture 🦠🌱 nature.com/articles/s41... Take a look! Thread below... 🧵

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

As well as CO2 Rubisco reacts with O2: plants evolved photorespiration to deal with the consequences. It works, but synthetic biology can do better! 🔄 We used metabolic modeling to compare alternative pathways to boost crop yields 🌱 🧵 #ScienceAdvancesResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.orgAlternatives to photorespiration: A system-level analysis reveals mechanisms of enhanced plant productivityComputational modeling reveals how engineering plants with alternative pathways to photorespiration could boost crop yields.
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Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

Excitingly we found that carbon fixing pathways should perform even better! They boost the carbon use efficiency of the calvin cycle and net carbon fixation 🟰 increased yields!

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

As well as CO2 Rubisco reacts with O2: plants evolved photorespiration to deal with the consequences. It works, but synthetic biology can do better! 🔄 We used metabolic modeling to compare alternative pathways to boost crop yields 🌱 🧵 #ScienceAdvancesResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.orgAlternatives to photorespiration: A system-level analysis reveals mechanisms of enhanced plant productivityComputational modeling reveals how engineering plants with alternative pathways to photorespiration could boost crop yields.
View full thread
Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

Energy costs, CO2 diffusion & native pathway interactions make it hard to pick the best pathway designs intuitively 🤔We used metabolic models to find top performers under various conditions.

Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

As well as CO2 Rubisco reacts with O2: plants evolved photorespiration to deal with the consequences. It works, but synthetic biology can do better! 🔄 We used metabolic modeling to compare alternative pathways to boost crop yields 🌱 🧵 #ScienceAdvancesResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.orgAlternatives to photorespiration: A system-level analysis reveals mechanisms of enhanced plant productivityComputational modeling reveals how engineering plants with alternative pathways to photorespiration could boost crop yields.
Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social

It’s often taught photorespiration is vital & altering it could harm plants ☠️ But it’s not the pathway itself that matters—it’s the function: clearing 2PG from Rubisco’s O2 reaction 🧹

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