Sustainably Improving Crop Yield and Composition through Enhanced Photosynthesis

Posted 8th January 2020 by Joshua Sewell

Understandably, one of the main themes of the recent Plant Genomics & Gene Editing Congress: USA was how research and industry can enable farmers and plant growers to meet the growing challenges of global food security. In his presentation, Greg Bryan introduced us to ZeaKal, a photosynthesis company developing solutions for farmers.

ZeaKal’s ultimate aim of decommodifying agriculture by improving yield, composition and sustainability. In this presentation, Greg looks at their Photoseed™ technology and how it can enable this decommodification process.

Photosynthesis is a highly complex pathway with exquisite control within the plant, such as complex negative feedback mechanisms which regulate the process. With just two genes Photoseed™ creates a new that builds on the plant’s natural biochemistry. This creates oil bodies in the plant’s green tissue and manages to increase the photosynthetic capability of the plant whilst also sustaining increases in yield.

Click below to view the slides and find out more about the mechanisms and potential of Photoseed™ .