Variation in leaf dark respiration among C3 and C4 grasses is associated with use of different substrates.

Measurements of respiratory properties have often been made at a single time point either during daytime using dark-adapted leaves or during nighttime. The influence of the day-night cycle on respiratory metabolism has received less attention but is crucial to understand photosynthesis and photorespiration. Here, we examined how CO2- and O2-based rates of leaf dark respiration (Rdark) differed between midday (after 30-min dark adaptation) and midnight in 8 C3 and C4 grasses. We used these data to calculate the respiratory quotient (RQ; ratio of CO2 release to O2 uptake), and assessed relationships between Rdark and leaf metabolome. Rdark was higher at midday than midnight, especially in C4 species. The day-night difference in Rdark was more evident when expressed on a CO2 than O2 basis, with the RQ being higher at midday than midnight in all species, except in rice (Oryza sativa). Metabolomic analyses showed little correlation of Rdark or RQ with leaf carbohydrates (sucrose, glucose, fructose, or starch) but strong multivariate relationships with other metabolites. The results suggest that rates of Rdark and differences in RQ were determined by several concurrent CO2-producing and O2-consuming metabolic pathways, not only the tricarboxylic acid cycle (organic acids utilization) but also the pentose phosphate pathway, galactose metabolism, and secondary metabolism. As such, Rdark was time-, type- (C3/C4) and species-dependent, due to the use of different substrates.

Increased sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase content in Setaria viridis does not affect C4 photosynthesis.

Sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase (SBPase) is one of the rate-limiting enzymes of the Calvin cycle, and increasing the abundance of SBPase in C3 plants provides higher photosynthetic rates and stimulates biomass and yield. C4 plants usually have higher photosynthetic rates because they operate a biochemical CO2-concentrating mechanism between mesophyll and bundle sheath cells. In the C4 system, SBPase and other enzymes of the Calvin cycle are localized to the bundle sheath cells. Here we tested what effect increasing abundance of SBPase would have on C4 photosynthesis. Using green foxtail millet (Setaria viridis), a model C4 plant of NADP-ME subtype, we created transgenic plants with 1.5 to 3.2 times higher SBPase content compared to wild-type plants. Transcripts of the transgene were found predominantly in the bundle sheaths suggesting the correct cellular localization of the protein. The abundance of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit was not affected in transgenic plants overexpressing SBPase, and neither was leaf chlorophyll content or photosynthetic electron transport parameters. We found no association between SBPase content in S. viridis and saturating rates of CO2 assimilation. Moreover, a detailed analysis of CO2 assimilation rates at different CO2 partial pressures, irradiances, and leaf temperatures showed no improvement of photosynthesis in plants overexpressing SBPase. We discuss the potential implications of these results for understanding the role of SBPase in regulation of C4 photosynthesis.

Faster induction of photosynthesis increases biomass and grain yield in glasshouse-grown transgenic Sorghum bicolor overexpressing Rieske FeS.

Sorghum is one of the most important crops providing food and feed in many of the world's harsher environments. Sorghum utilizes the C4 pathway of photosynthesis in which a biochemical carbon-concentrating mechanism results in high CO2 assimilation rates. Overexpressing the Rieske FeS subunit of the Cytochrome b6 f complex was previously shown to increase the rate of photosynthetic electron transport and stimulate CO2 assimilation in the model C4 plant Setaria viridis. To test whether productivity of C4 crops could be improved by Rieske overexpression, we created transgenic Sorghum bicolor Tx430 plants with increased Rieske content. The transgenic plants showed no marked changes in abundances of other photosynthetic proteins or chlorophyll content. The steady-state rates of electron transport and CO2 assimilation did not differ between the plants with increased Rieske abundance and control plants, suggesting that Cytochrome b6 f is not the only factor limiting electron transport in sorghum at high light and high CO2 . However, faster responses of non-photochemical quenching as well as an elevated quantum yield of Photosystem II and an increased CO2 assimilation rate were observed from the plants overexpressing Rieske during the photosynthetic induction, a process of activation of photosynthesis upon the dark-light transition. As a consequence, sorghum with increased Rieske content produced more biomass and grain when grown in glasshouse conditions. Our results indicate that increasing Rieske content has potential to boost productivity of sorghum and other C4 crops by improving the efficiency of light utilization and conversion to biomass through the faster induction of photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis and food security: the evolving story of C4 rice.

Traditional "Green Revolution" cereal breeding strategies to improve yield are now reaching a plateau in our principal global food crop rice. Photosynthesis has now become a major target of international consortia to increase yield potential. Synthetic biology is being used across multiple large projects to improve photosynthetic efficiency. This review follows the genesis and progress of one of the first of these consortia projects, now in its 13th year; the Bill and Melinda Gates funded C4 Rice Project. This project seeks to install the biochemical and anatomical attributes necessary to support C4 photosynthesis in the C3 crop rice. Here we address the advances made thus far in installing the biochemical pathway and some of the key targets yet to be reached.

A cross-scale analysis to understand and quantify the effects of photosynthetic enhancement on crop growth and yield across environments.

Photosynthetic manipulation provides new opportunities for enhancing crop yield. However, understanding and quantifying the importance of individual and multiple manipulations on the seasonal biomass growth and yield performance of target crops across variable production environments is limited. Using a state-of-the-art cross-scale model in the APSIM platform we predicted the impact of altering photosynthesis on the enzyme-limited (Ac ) and electron transport-limited (Aj ) rates, seasonal dynamics in canopy photosynthesis, biomass growth, and yield formation via large multiyear-by-location crop growth simulations. A broad list of promising strategies to improve photosynthesis for C3 wheat and C4 sorghum were simulated. In the top decile of seasonal outcomes, yield gains were predicted to be modest, ranging between 0% and 8%, depending on the manipulation and crop type. We report how photosynthetic enhancement can affect the timing and severity of water and nitrogen stress on the growing crop, resulting in nonintuitive seasonal crop dynamics and yield outcomes. We predicted that strategies enhancing Ac alone generate more consistent but smaller yield gains across all water and nitrogen environments, Aj enhancement alone generates larger gains but is undesirable in more marginal environments. Large increases in both Ac and Aj generate the highest gains across all environments. Yield outcomes of the tested manipulation strategies were predicted and compared for realistic Australian wheat and sorghum production. This study uniquely unpacks complex cross-scale interactions between photosynthesis and seasonal crop dynamics and improves understanding and quantification of the potential impact of photosynthesis traits (or lack of it) for crop improvement research.

Upregulation of bundle sheath electron transport capacity under limiting light in C4 Setaria viridis.

C4 photosynthesis is a biochemical pathway that operates across mesophyll and bundle sheath (BS) cells to increase CO2 concentration at the site of CO2 fixation. C4 plants benefit from high irradiance but their efficiency decreases under shade, causing a loss of productivity in crop canopies. We investigated shade acclimation responses of Setaria viridis, a model monocot of NADP-dependent malic enzyme subtype, focussing on cell-specific electron transport capacity. Plants grown under low light (LL) maintained CO2 assimilation rates similar to high light plants but had an increased chlorophyll and light-harvesting-protein content, predominantly in BS cells. Photosystem II (PSII) protein abundance, oxygen-evolving activity and the PSII/PSI ratio were enhanced in LL BS cells, indicating a higher capacity for linear electron flow. Abundances of PSI, ATP synthase, Cytochrome b6 f and the chloroplast NAD(P)H dehydrogenase complex, which constitute the BS cyclic electron flow machinery, were also increased in LL plants. A decline in PEP carboxylase activity in mesophyll cells and a consequent shortage of reducing power in BS chloroplasts were associated with a more oxidised plastoquinone pool in LL plants and the formation of PSII - light-harvesting complex II supercomplexes with an increased oxygen evolution rate. Our results suggest that the supramolecular composition of PSII in BS cells is adjusted according to the redox state of the plastoquinone pool. This discovery contributes to the understanding of the acclimation of PSII activity in C4 plants and will support the development of strategies for crop improvement, including the engineering of C4 photosynthesis into C3 plants.

A single promoter-TALE system for tissue-specific and tuneable expression of multiple genes in rice.

In biological discovery and engineering research, there is a need to spatially and/or temporally regulate transgene expression. However, the limited availability of promoter sequences that are uniquely active in specific tissue-types and/or at specific times often precludes co-expression of multiple transgenes in precisely controlled developmental contexts. Here, we developed a system for use in rice that comprises synthetic designer transcription activator-like effectors (dTALEs) and cognate synthetic TALE-activated promoters (STAPs). The system allows multiple transgenes to be expressed from different STAPs, with the spatial and temporal context determined by a single promoter that drives expression of the dTALE. We show that two different systems-dTALE1-STAP1 and dTALE2-STAP2-can activate STAP-driven reporter gene expression in stable transgenic rice lines, with transgene transcript levels dependent on both dTALE and STAP sequence identities. The relative strength of individual STAP sequences is consistent between dTALE1 and dTALE2 systems but differs between cell-types, requiring empirical evaluation in each case. dTALE expression leads to off-target activation of endogenous genes but the number of genes affected is substantially less than the number impacted by the somaclonal variation that occurs during the regeneration of transformed plants. With the potential to design fully orthogonal dTALEs for any genome of interest, the dTALE-STAP system thus provides a powerful approach to fine-tune the expression of multiple transgenes, and to simultaneously introduce different synthetic circuits into distinct developmental contexts.

The crucial roles of mitochondria in supporting C4 photosynthesis.

C4 photosynthesis involves a series of biochemical and anatomical traits that significantly improve plant productivity under conditions that reduce the efficiency of C3 photosynthesis. We explore how evolution of the three classical biochemical types of C4 photosynthesis (NADP-ME, NAD-ME and PCK types) has affected the functions and properties of mitochondria. Mitochondria in C4 NAD-ME and PCK types play a direct role in decarboxylation of metabolites for C4 photosynthesis. Mitochondria in C4 PCK type also provide ATP for C4 metabolism, although this role for ATP provision is not seen in NAD-ME type. Such involvement has increased mitochondrial abundance/size and associated enzymatic capacity, led to changes in mitochondrial location and ultrastructure, and altered the role of mitochondria in cellular carbon metabolism in the NAD-ME and PCK types. By contrast, these changes in mitochondrial properties are absent in the C4 NADP-ME type and C3 leaves, where mitochondria play no direct role in photosynthesis. From an eco-physiological perspective, rates of leaf respiration in darkness vary considerably among C4 species but does not differ systematically among the three C4 types. This review outlines further mitochondrial research in key areas central to the engineering of the C4 pathway into C3 plants and to the understanding of variation in rates of C4 dark respiration.

Dark respiration rates are not determined by differences in mitochondrial capacity, abundance and ultrastructure in C4 leaves.

Our understanding of the regulation of respiration in C4 plants, where mitochondria play different roles in the different types of C4 photosynthetic pathway, remains limited. We examined how leaf dark respiration rates (Rdark ), in the presence and absence of added malate, vary in monocots representing the three classical biochemical types of C4 photosynthesis (NADP-ME, NAD-ME and PCK) using intact leaves and extracted bundle sheath strands. In particular, we explored to what extent rates of Rdark are associated with mitochondrial number, volume and ultrastructure. Based on examination of a single species per C4 type, we found that the respiratory response of NAD-ME and PCK type bundle sheath strands to added malate was associated with differences in mitochondrial number, volume, and/or ultrastructure, while NADP-ME type bundle sheath strands did not respond to malate addition. In general, mitochondrial traits reflected the contributions mitochondria make to photosynthesis in the three C4 types. However, despite the obvious differences in mitochondrial traits, no clear correlation was observed between these traits and Rdark . We suggest that Rdark is primarily driven by cellular maintenance demands and not mitochondrial composition per se, in a manner that is somewhat independent of mitochondrial organic acid cycling in the light.

Enhanced abundance and activity of the chloroplast ATP synthase in rice through the overexpression of the AtpD subunit.

ATP, produced by the light reactions of photosynthesis, acts as the universal cellular energy cofactor fuelling all life processes. Chloroplast ATP synthase produces ATP using the proton motive force created by solar energy-driven thylakoid electron transport reactions. Here we investigate how increasing abundance of ATP synthase affects leaf photosynthesis and growth of rice, Oryza sativa variety Kitaake. We show that overexpression of AtpD, the nuclear-encoded subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase, stimulates both abundance of the complex, confirmed by immunodetection of thylakoid complexes separated by Blue Native-PAGE, and ATP synthase activity, detected as higher proton conductivity of the thylakoid membrane. Plants with increased AtpD content had higher CO2 assimilation rates when a stepwise increase in CO2 partial pressure was imposed on leaves at high irradiance. Fitting of the CO2 response curves of assimilation revealed that plants overexpressing AtpD had a higher electron transport rate (J) at high CO2, despite having wild-type-like abundance of the cytochrome b6f complex. A higher maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax) and lower cyclic electron flow detected in transgenic plants both pointed to an increased ATP production compared with wild-type plants. Our results present evidence that the activity of ATP synthase modulates the rate of electron transport at high CO2 and high irradiance.

Mesophyll conductance is unaffected by expression of Arabidopsis PIP1 aquaporins in the plasmalemma of Nicotiana.

In plants with C3 photosynthesis, increasing the diffusion conductance for CO2 from the substomatal cavity to chloroplast stroma (mesophyll conductance) can improve the efficiencies of both CO2 assimilation and photosynthetic water use. In the diffusion pathway from substomatal cavity to chloroplast stroma, the plasmalemma and chloroplast envelope membranes impose a considerable barrier to CO2 diffusion, limiting photosynthetic efficiency. In an attempt to improve membrane permeability to CO2, and increase photosynthesis in tobacco, we generated transgenic lines in Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Petite Havana carrying either the Arabidopsis PIP1;2 (AtPIP1;2) or PIP1;4 (AtPIP1;4) gene driven by the constitutive dual 2x35S CMV promoter. From a collection of independent T0 transgenics, two T2 lines from each gene were characterized, with western blots confirming increased total aquaporin protein abundance in the AtPIP1;2 tobacco lines. Transient expression of AtPIP1;2-mGFP6 and AtPIP1;4-mGFP6 fusions in Nicotiana benthamiana identified that both AtPIP1;2 and AtPIP1;4 localize to the plasmalemma. Despite achieving ectopic production and correct localization, gas exchange measurements combined with carbon isotope discrimination measurements detected no increase in mesophyll conductance or CO2 assimilation rate in the tobacco lines expressing AtPIP. We discuss the complexities associated with trying to enhance gm through modified aquaporin activity.

Rieske FeS overexpression in tobacco provides increased abundance and activity of cytochrome b6 f.

Photosynthesis is fundamental for plant growth and yield. The cytochrome b6 f complex catalyses a rate-limiting step in thylakoid electron transport and therefore represents an important point of regulation of photosynthesis. Here we show that overexpression of a single core subunit of cytochrome b6 f, the Rieske FeS protein, led to up to a 40% increase in the abundance of the complex in Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and was accompanied by an enhanced in vitro cytochrome f activity, indicating a full functionality of the complex. Analysis of transgenic plants overexpressing Rieske FeS by the light-induced fluorescence transients technique revealed a more oxidised primary quinone acceptor of photosystem II (QA ) and plastoquinone pool and faster electron transport from the plastoquinone pool to photosystem I upon changes in irradiance, compared to control plants. A faster establishment of qE , the energy-dependent component of nonphotochemical quenching, in transgenic plants suggests a more rapid buildup of the transmembrane proton gradient, also supporting the increased in vivo cytochrome b6 f activity. However, there was no consistent increase in steady-state rates of electron transport or CO2 assimilation in plants overexpressing Rieske FeS grown in either laboratory conditions or field trials, suggesting that the in vivo activity of the complex was only transiently increased upon changes in irradiance. Our results show that overexpression of Rieske FeS in tobacco enhances the abundance of functional cytochrome b6 f and may have the potential to increase plant productivity if combined with other traits.

On the road to C4 rice: advances and perspectives.

The international C4 rice consortium aims to introduce into rice a high capacity photosynthetic mechanism, the C4 pathway, to increase yield. The C4 pathway is characterised by a complex combination of biochemical and anatomical specialisation that ensures high CO2 partial pressure at RuBisCO sites in bundle sheath (BS) cells. Here we report an update of the progress of the C4 rice project. Since its inception in 2008 there has been an exponential growth in synthetic biology and molecular tools. Golden Gate cloning and synthetic promoter systems have facilitated gene building block approaches allowing multiple enzymes and metabolite transporters to be assembled and expressed from single gene constructs. Photosynthetic functionalisation of the BS in rice remains an important step and there has been some success overexpressing transcription factors in the cytokinin signalling network which influence chloroplast volume. The C4 rice project has rejuvenated the research interest in C4 photosynthesis. Comparative anatomical studies now point to critical features essential for the design. So far little attention has been paid to the energetics. C4 photosynthesis has a greater ATP requirement, which is met by increased cyclic electron transport in BS cells. We hypothesise that changes in energy statues may drive this increased capacity for cyclic electron flow without the need for further modification. Although increasing vein density will ultimately be necessary for high efficiency C4 rice, our modelling shows that small amounts of C4 photosynthesis introduced around existing veins could already provide benefits of increased photosynthesis on the road to C4 rice.

Installation of C4 photosynthetic pathway enzymes in rice using a single construct.

Introduction of a C4 photosynthetic mechanism into C3 crops offers an opportunity to improve photosynthetic efficiency, biomass and yield in addition to potentially improving nitrogen and water use efficiency. To create a two-cell metabolic prototype for an NADP-malic enzyme type C4 rice, we transformed Oryza sativa spp. japonica cultivar Kitaake with a single construct containing the coding regions of carbonic anhydrase, phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylase, NADP-malate dehydrogenase, pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase and NADP-malic enzyme from Zea mays, driven by cell-preferential promoters. Gene expression, protein accumulation and enzyme activity were confirmed for all five transgenes, and intercellular localization of proteins was analysed. 13 CO2 labelling demonstrated a 10-fold increase in flux though PEP carboxylase, exceeding the increase in measured in vitro enzyme activity, and estimated to be about 2% of the maize photosynthetic flux. Flux from malate via pyruvate to PEP remained low, commensurate with the low NADP-malic enzyme activity observed in the transgenic lines. Physiological perturbations were minor and RNA sequencing revealed no substantive effects of transgene expression on other endogenous rice transcripts associated with photosynthesis. These results provide promise that, with enhanced levels of the C4 proteins introduced thus far, a functional C4 pathway is achievable in rice.

Updating the steady-state model of C4 photosynthesis.

C4 plants play a key role in world agriculture. For example, C4 crops such as maize and sorghum are major contributors to food production in both developed and developing countries, and the C4 grasses sugarcane, miscanthus, and switchgrass are major plant sources of bioenergy. In the challenge to manipulate and enhance C4 photosynthesis, steady-state models of leaf photosynthesis provide an important tool for gas exchange analysis and thought experiments that can explore photosynthetic pathway changes. Here a previous C4 photosynthetic model developed by von Caemmerer and Furbank has been updated with new kinetic parameterization and temperature dependencies added. The parameterization was derived from experiments on the C4 monocot, Setaria viridis, which for the first time provides a cohesive parameterization. Mesophyll conductance and its temperature dependence have also been included, as this is an important step in the quantitative correlation between the initial slope of the CO2 response curve of CO2 assimilation and in vitro phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity. Furthermore, the equations for chloroplast electron transport have been updated to include cyclic electron transport flow, and equations have been added to calculate the electron transport rate from measured CO2 assimilation rates.

A low CO2-responsive mutant of Setaria viridis reveals that reduced carbonic anhydrase limits C4 photosynthesis.

In C4 species, ß-carbonic anhydrase (CA), localized to the cytosol of the mesophyll cells, accelerates the interconversion of CO2 to HCO3-, the substrate used by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the first step of C4 photosynthesis. Here we describe the identification and characterization of low CO2-responsive mutant 1 (lcr1) isolated from an N-nitroso-N-methylurea- (NMU) treated Setaria viridis mutant population. Forward genetic investigation revealed that the mutated gene Sevir.5G247800 of lcr1 possessed a single nucleotide transition from cytosine to thymine in a ß-CA gene causing an amino acid change from leucine to phenylalanine. This resulted in severe reduction in growth and photosynthesis in the mutant. Both the CO2 compensation point and carbon isotope discrimination values of the mutant were significantly increased. Growth of the mutants was stunted when grown under ambient pCO2 but recovered at elevated pCO2. Further bioinformatics analyses revealed that the mutation has led to functional changes in one of the conserved residues of the protein, situated near the catalytic site. CA transcript accumulation in the mutant was 80% lower, CA protein accumulation 30% lower, and CA activity ~98% lower compared with the wild type. Changes in the abundance of other primary C4 pathway enzymes were observed; accumulation of PEPC protein was significantly increased and accumulation of malate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme decreased. The reduction of CA protein activity and abundance in lcr1 restricts the supply of bicarbonate to PEPC, limiting C4 photosynthesis and growth. This study establishes Sevir.5G247800 as the major CA allele in Setaria for C4 photosynthesis and provides important insights into the function of CA in C4 photosynthesis that would be required to generate a rice plant with a functional C4 biochemical pathway.

A wish list for synthetic biology in photosynthesis research.

This perspective summarizes the presentations and discussions at the ' International Symposium on Synthetic Biology in Photosynthesis Research', which was held in Shanghai in 2018. Leveraging the current advanced understanding of photosynthetic systems, the symposium brain-stormed about the redesign and engineering of photosynthetic systems for translational goals and evaluated available new technologies/tools for synthetic biology as well as technological obstacles and new tools that would be needed to overcome them. Four major research areas for redesigning photosynthesis were identified: (i) mining natural variations of photosynthesis; (ii) coordinating photosynthesis with pathways utilizing photosynthate; (iii) reconstruction of highly efficient photosynthetic systems in non-host species; and (iv) development of new photosynthetic systems that do not exist in nature. To expedite photosynthesis synthetic biology research, an array of new technologies and community resources need to be developed, which include expanded modelling capacities, molecular engineering toolboxes, model species, and phenotyping tools.

Diffusion of CO2 across the Mesophyll-Bundle Sheath Cell Interface in a C4 Plant with Genetically Reduced PEP Carboxylase Activity.

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), localized to the cytosol of the mesophyll cell, catalyzes the first carboxylation step of the C4 photosynthetic pathway. Here, we used RNA interference to target the cytosolic photosynthetic PEPC isoform in Setaria viridis and isolated independent transformants with very low PEPC activities. These plants required high ambient CO2 concentrations for growth, consistent with the essential role of PEPC in C4 photosynthesis. The combination of estimating direct CO2 fixation by the bundle sheath using gas-exchange measurements and modeling C4 photosynthesis with low PEPC activity allowed the calculation of bundle sheath conductance to CO2 diffusion (gbs ) in the progeny of these plants. Measurements made at a range of temperatures suggested no or negligible effect of temperature on gbs depending on the technique used to calculate gbs Anatomical measurements revealed that plants with reduced PEPC activity had reduced cell wall thickness and increased plasmodesmata (PD) density at the mesophyll-bundle sheath (M-BS) cell interface, whereas we observed little difference in these parameters at the mesophyll-mesophyll cell interface. The increased PD density at the M-BS interface was largely driven by an increase in the number of PD pit fields (cluster of PDs) rather than an increase in PD per pit field or the size of pit fields. The correlation of gbs with bundle sheath surface area per leaf area and PD area per M-BS area showed that these parameters and cell wall thickness are important determinants of gbs It is intriguing to speculate that PD development is responsive to changes in C4 photosynthetic flux.

Transgenic maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase alters leaf-atmosphere CO2 and 13CO2 exchanges in Oryza sativa.

The engineering process of C4 photosynthesis into C3 plants requires an increased activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the cytosol of leaf mesophyll cells. The literature varies on the physiological effect of transgenic maize (Zea mays) PEPC (ZmPEPC) leaf expression in Oryza sativa (rice). Therefore, to address this issue, leaf-atmosphere CO2 and 13CO2 exchanges were measured, both in the light (at atmospheric O2 partial pressure of 1.84 kPa and at different CO2 levels) and in the dark, in transgenic rice expressing ZmPEPC and wild-type (WT) plants. The in vitro PEPC activity was 25 times higher in the PEPC overexpressing (PEPC-OE) plants (~20% of maize) compared to the negligible activity in WT. In the PEPC-OE plants, the estimated fraction of carboxylation by PEPC (ß) was ~6% and leaf net biochemical discrimination against 13CO2[Formula: see text] was ~ 2‰ lower than in WT. However, there were no differences in leaf net CO2 assimilation rates (A) between genotypes, while the leaf dark respiration rates (Rd) over three hours after light-dark transition were enhanced (~ 30%) and with a higher 13C composition [Formula: see text] in the PEPC-OE plants compared to WT. These data indicate that ZmPEPC in the PEPC-OE rice plants contributes to leaf carbon metabolism in both the light and in the dark. However, there are some factors, potentially posttranslational regulation and PEP availability, which reduce ZmPEPC activity in vivo.

Response of plasmodesmata formation in leaves of C4 grasses to growth irradiance.

Rapid metabolite diffusion across the mesophyll (M) and bundle sheath (BS) cell interface in C4 leaves is a key requirement for C4 photosynthesis and occurs via plasmodesmata (PD). Here, we investigated how growth irradiance affects PD density between M and BS cells and between M cells in two C4 species using our PD quantification method, which combines three-dimensional laser confocal fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The response of leaf anatomy and physiology of NADP-ME species, Setaria viridis and Zea mays to growth under different irradiances, low light (100 µmol m-2  s-1 ), and high light (1,000 µmol m-2  s-1 ), was observed both at seedling and established growth stages. We found that the effect of growth irradiance on C4 leaf PD density depended on plant age and species. The high light treatment resulted in two to four-fold greater PD density per unit leaf area than at low light, due to greater area of PD clusters and greater PD size in high light plants. These results along with our finding that the effect of light on M-BS PD density was not tightly linked to photosynthetic capacity suggest a complex mechanism underlying the dynamic response of C4 leaf PD formation to growth irradiance.