Dr. John C. Cushman
University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Presentará la conferencia:
“Novel Strategies for Improving Plant Water-use Efficiency for a Hotter, Drier World”
Resumen:
The climate crisis driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions threatens to increase the frequency, duration, and geographical distribution of droughts over global landmasses during the 21st century. In order to develop novel strategies for creating climate-resilient plants, we have investigated a specialized form of photosynthesis known as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), which is present in more than 6% of vascular plant species along with a suite of co-adapted traits (e.g., tissue succulence) that might serve to improve the adaptability of plants to hotter and drier climates. CAM increases water-use efficiency (WUE) and reduces water demand through the use inverted stomatal behavior coupled with a temporal CO2 pump with nocturnal CO2 uptake and concentration. The Cushman lab is investigating the productivity and irrigation response of highly productive CAM crops such as cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) to serve as food and feed sources and as a biofuel feedstock for semi-arid and arid regions of the world. More recently, his laboratory has used engineered tissue succulence and crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) to improve the water-use efficiency, salinity, and water-deficit stress tolerance in model plant species with the long-term goal of moving these water-conserving adaptations into food, feed, and (bio)fuel crops enabling production on marginal or abandoned agricultural lands.
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