Addition of longer wavelength absorbing chlorophylls into crops could increase their photosynthetic productivity by 26%

Yu Wang (), Thomas J. Oliver, Roberta Croce and Stephen P. Long ()
Additional contact information
Yu Wang: Nanjing University
Thomas J. Oliver: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Roberta Croce: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Stephen P. Long: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Crop leaves absorb approximately 90% of visible photons (400 – 700 nm) but transmit or reflect most far-red (FR) photons (700 – 800 nm). However, some cyanobacteria use FR photons up to 800 nm by incorporating chlorophyll (Chl) d or/and f into their photosystems. Here, we use a 3D canopy model to evaluate whether introducing these pigments could improve photosynthetic performance of field grown soybean. We simulate photon absorption and CO2 assimilation show that the introduction of Chl d and f would significantly enhance photosynthesis, especially in the lower canopy, where visible light is depleted and FR light is abundant. When FR absorption is regulated by phytochrome-sensed FR/red (FR/R) photon ratio, the benefit is further increased, with canopy CO2 assimilation improving up to 26%, without increasing the risk of photodamage. These results show that introducing FR-absorbing Chls into crops could have great value in boosting productivity.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62885-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62885-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62885-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().