Negi and Sayre Publish Work on Photosynthesis Efficiency in Algae
Sangeeta Negi and Richard Sayre, New Mexico Consortium research scientists, publish their work titled Light regulation of light-harvesting antenna size substantially enhances photosynthetic efficiency and biomass yield in green algae in The Plant Journal.
At the end of this century, the human population is estimated to increase from 7.4 billion to 11 billion. One of the greatest challenges facing future generations is the sustainable production of food, fiber, and fuels on increasingly limited and degraded lands. One possible solution to address this challenge is to increase the photosynthetic efficiency and biomass productivity of primary biomass producers which includes microalgae.
One of the major factors limiting biomass productivity in algae, and plants in general, is that photosynthesis is not very efficient. This research describes a translational control system that adjusts algae’s light-harvesting antenna in order to increase photosynthetic performance, with great success. No other photosynthetic improvement to date has yielded such an increase in biomass yield.
To read more on this exciting research see the entire paper: