Researchers Develop Complete Model of Photosynthetic Carbon Metabolism
09 November 2007
Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a complete model of photosynthetic carbon metabolism that is capable of simulating photosynthesis in normal air. Using the model and an evolutionary algorithm to search for multiple alterations in the partitioning of enzyme resources, the team found that they could simulate a plant with almost double the productivity without requiring additional nitrogen fertilizer.
The research, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is published as an open access article in the October issue of the journal Plant Physiology.
This process identified several proteins that could, if present in higher concentrations relative to others, greatly enhance the productivity of the plant. The new findings are consistent with results from other researchers, who found that increases in one of these proteins in transgenic plants increased productivity.
Resources
Xin-Guang Zhu, Eric de Sturler and Stephen P. Long. “Optimizing the Distribution of Resources between Enzymes of Carbon Metabolism Can Dramatically Increase Photosynthetic Rate: A Numerical Simulation Using an Evolutionary Algorithm”, Plant Physiol. 2007 Oct;145(2):513-26
So what was the highest degree of sunlight to energy they could get?
Posted by: GreyFlcn | 10 November 2007 at 02:18 PM
The paper's open-access, read it yourself.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 10 November 2007 at 05:32 PM