Photosynthsis efficiency limit

[Moreno]

It is claimed that solar cell efficiency record achieved 32.6% under one -sun. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell

Would it be possible to achieve the same efficiency someday, for living plants with help of gene engineering? If yes, how much would it change our civilization? For example, prices for food, wood and biofuel? Would it become cost efficient base all energy production on biomass burning? 

 

[pavelcherepan]

Well, I guess, if plant photosynthesis had increased in efficiency, the said plant should produce more sugars, have faster growth and more CO2 absorption. We could then solve world hunger issues and also quickly reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . In which case we wouldn't even need to stop burning fossil fuels! Yay! Everyone wins! 

Not sure how it can be done though. 

[StringJunky]

1 hour ago, pavelcherepan said:

Well, I guess, if plant photosynthesis had increased in efficiency, the said plant should produce more sugars, have faster growth and more CO2 absorption. We could then solve world hunger issues and also quickly reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . In which case we wouldn't even need to stop burning fossil fuels! Yay! Everyone wins! 

Not sure how it can be done though. 

With increased warmth and CO2, plant respiration should increase anyway.

[Moreno]

On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 7:27 PM, pavelcherepan said:

 

Not sure how it can be done though. 

Genetic engineering?

[CharonY]

It is important to note that CO2 fixation is not directly coupled to the efficiency of the light reaction. Rather, energy obtained from the light reaction is used to fuel carbon fixation. However, in many circumstances energy availability is not what ultimately limits CO2 fixation efficiency. In cases where the light gathering abilities are higher than the metabolic abilities to fix carbon, it may be more efficient to limit light absorption.

Reasons include the fact that the mechanism for carbon fixation is heat sensitive and excess energy can lead to generation of heat as well as reactive oxygen species. Thus in some species reducing antenna size has increased carbon fixation rates (see e.g. Beckmann et al. J Biotechnol 2009).

On a side note, this is why metabolic engineering of organisms is very tricky. Pathways are not straightforward and increasing flow in one area usually have unintended consequences. There is a reason why optimization via strain selection is still very common compared to rational strain design for activities that are at least slightly complex.

Edited February 8, 2018 by CharonY

[Bender]

I don't think selection will be the answer. There has been plenty of selective pressure to increase efficiency over the last billion years, so I doubt we can add to that without genetic engineering of a complexity that will not soon be possible.

[solarpanel8]

Plants can only display traits that already exist in their DNA so if that trait did not yet exist in the plants DNA, you would need a mutation. Positive mutations are very rare, so maybe you could have intense light on a select group of plants, breed them, find which offspring absorb the light the best, then continue breeding them and pray you get the proper mutations that would allow massive efficiency. This is not natural though, if you are speaking of creating natural plants that help end world hunger, we need to focus on mass production of alkaline plants that Dr Sebi discussed.