Enviornmental Plant Bio. Blog

This article, published in the March 206 edition of Plant, Cell, and Environment, examined the theory that improvements in photosynthesis could increase crop yields.  Photosynthesis was chosen as the variable to manipulate because other involved properties, efficiency of light capture, conversion of absorbed light into biomass, and proportion of biomass partitioned into grain were constant properties.  The original thought was that improving leaf photosynthesis would not increase crop yields.  However, contrasting results were found after running the experiment.  Six different modifications on the leaves for “photosynthetic efficiency” were examined with an end result of a possible increase of up to 50%.  Overall, it appears from this article and the experiment run that improving photosynthetic abilities does increase crop yields.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-3040.2005.01493.x