Research proposal: Engineering chloroplast genomes for enhanced photosynthetic efficiency

Chloroplasts are the organelles in plant cells that carry out photosynthesis, the process that utilizes sunlight to covert carbon dioxide to carbohydrates. Chloroplasts house their own genome, termed the plastome, that encodes many genes essential for photosynthesis. These genes are desirable targets for enhancing crop productivity. However, a lack of programmable DNA editing tools capable of specific and efficient editing of the plastome has so far prevented significant efforts for plastome engineering. This project aims to develop such a tool, based on the widely used CRISPR-Cas editing system, to open the door for plastome engineering. The system will then be used to introduce evolutionary-guided target edits into the plastome of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The effect of the mutations will then be analyzed, primarily through spectroscopic methods.

BBSRC Priority Areas
The development of a programmable DNA editing tool for the plastome which could be used for enhancing crop productivity falls under the BBSRCs transformative technology for the biosciences. Work to identify and characterize target edits that enhance desirable photosynthetic traits falls under the BBSRCs global food security and sustainably enhancing agricultural production priority areas.