Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar

Increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere and the resulting negative impacts of climate change have compelled global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality or negativity. Most such efforts focus on carbon sequestration through chemical or physical approaches. Harnessing the power of synthetic biology to enhance the natural ability of carbon sequestration in plants, especially non-annuals, provides a biological approach to further reduce CO2 levels in the air. Here, we selected a photorespiration bypass pathway and tested its effectiveness on photosynthetic enhancement in a hybrid poplar, INRA717-IB4. The design includes an RNAi strategy to reduce the transportation of the photorespiration byproduct, glycolate, out of chloroplast and a shunt pathway to metabolize the retained glycolate back to CO2 for fixation through the Calvin-Benson cycle. Molecular and physiological data collected from two separate growth experiments indicate that transgenic plants expressing genes in the photorespiration bypass pathway have increased photosynthetic efficiency, leading to faster plant growth and elevated biomass production. One lead transgenic event accumulated 35%–53% more above-ground dry biomass over four months of growth in a controlled environment. Our results provide a proof of concept for engineering trees to help combat climate change.