Redesigning Photosynthesis: helping plants face the future.

Presented by Prof Murray Badger, Prof Susanne von Caemmerer, Dr Dean Price & Dr Spencer Whitney
Molecular Plant Physiology Group

Research directions in the Molecular Plant Physiology (MPP) group are primarily focused on understanding the genetic, biochemical and physiological processes that control the efficiency of photosynthetic CO 2 fixation in plants and cyanobacteria (the ancestors of chloroplasts). Our aim is to increase our basic knowledge of the biochemistry of CO 2 fixation and use this knowledge to tailor crop plants towards being better suited to global climate change.

This workshop session will provide students with an opportunity to examine modern technologies used by our group; these will include:

• Using mass spectrometry to determine the catalytic properties of specific enzymes in crude leaf extracts;
• Biolistically transforming the genome of chloroplasts, a tool used to modify the type or catalytic properties of the CO 2 fixing enzyme, Rubisco, in plants;
• Measuring the photosynthetic performance of plants using (1) portable chambers that clamp onto leaves and measure gas exchange (CO 2 uptake, H 2 O loss) and (2) whole plant chambers that measure the health of the light capturing apparatus in leaves via fluorescence imaging;
• Manipulating protein complexes (e.g. CO 2 and HCO 3 - transporters) in cyanobacteria and defining structure-function features in vivo using online mass spectrometry.

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