Engineering New Bio-Based Carbon Capture Solutions to Bridge the Global Food Gap

By 2050, feeding the world will require a 70% increase in food production with fewer water resources due to climate change. New strategies are needed to replace current approaches. C3 photosynthesis is inefficient due to photorespiration, but synthetic biology offers a way to increase photosynthetic efficiency and crop yields, such as the tartronyl-CoA (TaCo) pathway. This project assesses the TaCo pathway in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and represents a pivotal step toward its practical application in higher plants for use in agriculture and biotechnology.