Reducing respiratory losses of carbon to improve carbon use efficiency and growth in plants

The growth of crops on our fields is not only limited by carbon uptake but also carbon retention. Up to half of the carbon gained by photosynthesis during the day is lost at night due to respiration, as carbon dioxide. This project aims to find ways to reduce losses of carbon during the night. One approach will be to investigate re-fixing respired carbon dioxide before it escapes from the leaf and making it available again to photosynthesis during the day. The other approach will aim to find more efficient metabolic pathways that lose less carbon dioxide.