Food production needs to double by 2050 to meet the global needs, and this is challenged by climate change. Photosynthesis is the main process that supports life on Earth by converting CO2 into sugars in plants. The synthesis, degradation, transport and storage of sugars are fine-tuned to maximise plant growth.
Therefore, increases in crop productivity need to be coordinated with improvements in photosynthesis and photosynthate metabolism under stress conditions, as photosynthesis optimization does not directly improve plant resilience to climate change. Historically, some selected traits to increase yield indirectly limit photosynthesis, leaving remaining potential for further gains through improved source-sink balance. The accumulation of sugars in leaves (source) can occur due to low sink strength (i.e. less storage tissues), resulting in photosynthesis downregulation. The opposite is also true: higher sink strength stimulates photosynthesis in source leaves.
The regulation of photosynthesis is crucial to source-sink balance, and it is not clear how it is affected by abiotic stress in sweet potato, an understudied species and a new potential crop in Scandinavia. Drought and heat are the main environmental factors affecting sweet potato yield by changing the source-sink balance. This project aims to develop strategies to increase crop yield in a changing climate. By developing the study along with the postdoc as part of a side project, the outcomes have the potential to be presented at scientific conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.
The project is aligned to UN's SGD:
