Location: Global Change and Photosynthesis Research
Project Number: 5012-21000-030-001-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2015
End Date: Dec 31, 2019
Objective:
This research will investigate the role that phloem loading plays in determining plant primary carbon metabolic responses to CO2 concentration. We will investigate different species with different phloem loading strategies and use transgenic plants with altered contents of sucrose transporters to address the hypothesis that species with different phloem loading strategies will have fundamentally different responses to elevated [CO2].
Approach:
The photosynthetic CO2 response of nine diverse crop and horticultural species with different phloem loading strategies will be investigated. Plants will be grown at ambient and elevated [CO2] in the field and in growth cabinets. Anatomical, molecular, biochemical and physiological changes underpinning the photosynthetic CO2 responses will be examined. Transgenic sugarbeet, soybean and Arabidopsis over-expressing sucrose transporters in companion cells will be tested for increased response to CO2 in growth chambers and the field.
