Edward Smith
@tednsmith.bsky.social
Biochemist using flux analysis to investigate the amazing metabolism of plants 🌱🌿🌵👨🔬
Reposted by Edward Smith
Outstanding work by @anyalb.bsky.social in my lab - she targeted enzymes to synthetic biomolecular condensates in plants and showed increases in metabolic pathway activity, likely due to protection of the introduced enzymes from proteolysis
#PlantScience
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#PlantScience
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
April 25, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Outstanding work by @anyalb.bsky.social in my lab - she targeted enzymes to synthetic biomolecular condensates in plants and showed increases in metabolic pathway activity, likely due to protection of the introduced enzymes from proteolysis
#PlantScience
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#PlantScience
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A big month for engineering photorespiration! More evidence that bypassing photorespiration in rice by converting glycolate to CO2 in chloroplasts can boost yields. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... More work needed to ensure gains reach the grains 🍚 but another promising step forward! 🧵
A synthetic glycolate metabolism bypass in rice chloroplasts increases photosynthesis and yield
Photorespiration consumes photosynthetically fixed carbon and reduces yields by 20%–50% in C3 crops. In an attempt to increase photosynthetic efficien…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 16, 2025 at 9:38 AM
A big month for engineering photorespiration! More evidence that bypassing photorespiration in rice by converting glycolate to CO2 in chloroplasts can boost yields. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... More work needed to ensure gains reach the grains 🍚 but another promising step forward! 🧵
Reposted by Edward Smith
Our team recently published important findings in Science Advances on improving crop efficiency!
Read the press release to learn more. 🌻
#PlantScience #SustainableAgriculture #FoodSecurity #EUResearch
gain4crops.eu/beyond-photo...
Read the press release to learn more. 🌻
#PlantScience #SustainableAgriculture #FoodSecurity #EUResearch
gain4crops.eu/beyond-photo...
Beyond photorespiration: A systematic approach to unlocking enhanced plant productivity
New research from GAIN4CROPS partners provides critical insights into overcoming one of agriculture’s most costly inefficiencies.
gain4crops.eu
April 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Our team recently published important findings in Science Advances on improving crop efficiency!
Read the press release to learn more. 🌻
#PlantScience #SustainableAgriculture #FoodSecurity #EUResearch
gain4crops.eu/beyond-photo...
Read the press release to learn more. 🌻
#PlantScience #SustainableAgriculture #FoodSecurity #EUResearch
gain4crops.eu/beyond-photo...
Reposted by Edward Smith
Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter.
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
April 5, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter.
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce')
Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Reposted by Edward Smith
If you want to find out why metabolism may look different to what you were taught, and why this matters, dip into to our review 'Non-canonical plant metabolism' www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natureplants.bsky.social
#PlantScience
@natureplants.bsky.social
#PlantScience
April 4, 2025 at 6:13 PM
If you want to find out why metabolism may look different to what you were taught, and why this matters, dip into to our review 'Non-canonical plant metabolism' www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natureplants.bsky.social
#PlantScience
@natureplants.bsky.social
#PlantScience
Another example just published of an alternative pathway to photorespiration boosting crop yields by 21%–69%! This time a complete glycolate oxidation pathway (called GOC) in potatoes. Some interesting takeaways 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Synthetic photorespiratory bypass more stably increases potato yield per plant by improving photosynthesis
The bioengineering of photorespiration has emerged as a key target for improving photosynthesis and crop yield. In our previous study, two photorespiratory bypasses, GOC and GCGT, were successfully e...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
April 4, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Another example just published of an alternative pathway to photorespiration boosting crop yields by 21%–69%! This time a complete glycolate oxidation pathway (called GOC) in potatoes. Some interesting takeaways 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Really impressive work from Ari and the team - going from an idea all the way to a functional pathway using the latest synbio tools! The CORE cycle is another carbon fixing route that could be used as an alternative to photorespiration in plants. Interested to see where this goes next! 🌱📈
Excited to share a main project from my PhD, out now in
@naturecomms.bsky.social! 📝
We've designed and brought to life the “CORE cycle” – a new-to-nature pathway that provides a novel route for biological CO2 capture 🦠🌱
nature.com/articles/s41...
Take a look! Thread below... 🧵
@naturecomms.bsky.social! 📝
We've designed and brought to life the “CORE cycle” – a new-to-nature pathway that provides a novel route for biological CO2 capture 🦠🌱
nature.com/articles/s41...
Take a look! Thread below... 🧵
April 4, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Really impressive work from Ari and the team - going from an idea all the way to a functional pathway using the latest synbio tools! The CORE cycle is another carbon fixing route that could be used as an alternative to photorespiration in plants. Interested to see where this goes next! 🌱📈
As well as CO2 Rubisco reacts with O2: plants evolved photorespiration to deal with the consequences. It works, but synthetic biology can do better! 🔄 We used metabolic modeling to compare alternative pathways to boost crop yields 🌱 🧵 #ScienceAdvancesResearch
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Alternatives to photorespiration: A system-level analysis reveals mechanisms of enhanced plant productivity
Computational modeling reveals how engineering plants with alternative pathways to photorespiration could boost crop yields.
www.science.org
April 2, 2025 at 12:41 PM
As well as CO2 Rubisco reacts with O2: plants evolved photorespiration to deal with the consequences. It works, but synthetic biology can do better! 🔄 We used metabolic modeling to compare alternative pathways to boost crop yields 🌱 🧵 #ScienceAdvancesResearch
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...