3/ Compare this to recent potato studies: doi.org/10.1111/gcb...., doi.org/10.1111/pbi.... Matching the right pathway to the right crop species in the right growing conditions will be key to unlocking this tech’s huge potential!

2/ The CO2 compensation point (CO2 conc. where net CO2 release is zero) usually drops with this bypass, but here it rose. Maybe due to species-specific differences in CO2 diffusion paths? More modelling needed to figure this out!

1/ Blocking glycolate export from chloroplasts has previously been shown to be a good strategy - but here it resulted in worse performance in the field. With this type of bypass some native photorespiration can be beneficial so fine-tuning this could be a next step.

3. Interestingly the net photosynthetic rate still seems to be increased under high CO2 (when you wouldn't expect much photorespiration to be occurring anyway) 🤔 Can anyone help explain this? @florianabusch.bsky.social

2. The GOC pathway had the biggest improvement under high-light conditions. Reassuringly this matches our recent modelling work which also predicted other alternative pathways - like those that fix additional CO2 - could perform even better than the pathway described in this paper.

1. The pathway increased yields even under adverse conditions such as heavy rain, low light and waterlogging. This is super important to mitigate the effects climate change can have on weather patterns.

Follow @gain4crops.eu for updates as we test these predictions in plants 🌻

Next steps: turning 🖥️ models into real-world yield boosts 📈

Thanks to @matthiasheinemann.bsky.social @apmweber.bsky.social @Marvin van Aalst @Oliver Ebenhöh and everyone @gain4crops.eu

Excitingly we found that carbon fixing pathways should perform even better! They boost the carbon use efficiency of the calvin cycle and net carbon fixation 🟰 increased yields!

Field trials (like @ripeproject.bsky.social's awesome work) show pathways that relocate CO2 release to chloroplasts, from mitochondria can perform well 🚜 Our models link this to CO2 diffusion & Rubisco efficiency gains.

Energy costs, CO2 diffusion & native pathway interactions make it hard to pick the best pathway designs intuitively 🤔We used metabolic models to find top performers under various conditions.

Alternative pathways can do the same job - recycle 2PG back into the metabolic network. Some release CO2 in the process but others can even fix extra CO2!

It’s often taught photorespiration is vital & altering it could harm plants ☠️ But it’s not the pathway itself that matters—it’s the function: clearing 2PG from Rubisco’s O2 reaction 🧹