In a newly released TED Talk, Stephen Long (BSD/CABBI/GEGC), a professor of plant biology and crop sciences, detailed his and his colleagues’ efforts to boost photosynthesis in crop plants.

A team from the University of Illinois has modeled improving photosynthesis through enzyme modification and simulated soybean growth with realistic climate conditions, determining to what extent the improvements in photosynthesis could result in increased yields.

Victoria Kramer is a Field and Greenhouse Technician at the RIPE High-Throughput Phenotyping Facility where she helps with the day-to-day upkeep of the plants.

If you walked into the RIPE HTPF, located on the southern part of the Illinois campus, the first thing you would notice is the never-ending rows of plants. At any given time, several hundred plants are carefully cultivated over the 8000-foot greenhouse, lovingly tended to by a dedicated staff.

Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations has awarded a grant of $34 million to the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency project, an international research effort led by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In its 10-year history, RIPE has demonstrated large increases in crop productivity in replicated field trials on the university farm.

Science storytelling organization The Story Collider develops “true, personal stories about science” as part of their mission to reveal the vibrant role that science plays in all of our lives through the power of storytelling. Two IGB members will be featured on the December 16th episode of the Story Collider weekly podcast, which will be titled “Flora: Stories from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.”

A University of Illinois research team received a $1.85 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study photosynthesis efficiency in sorghum, an important crop for bioenergy feedstock. The grant is part of a $178 million DOE initiative to advance bioenergy technology.

For the first time, RIPE researchers have proven that multigene bioengineering of photosynthesis increases the yield of a major food crop in field trials. After more than a decade of working toward this goal, a collaborative team led by the University of Illinois has transgenically altered soybean plants to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis, resulting in greater yields without loss of quality.

For the inaugural DEI Award, two projects have been selected for funding by the Committee on Diversity at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. “Surviving grad school: a student and research-led seminar series,” proposed by the Graduate Biomedical Engineering Society and “More than an internship: RIPE mentorship work experience for underrepresented students,” proposed by communications team at Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency were awarded $2500 and $7500 respectively.

It is projected that by the year 2050, the global food supply will need to increase by 50-80% to keep up with the growing population. Researchers all over the world have been working to find ways to sustainably grow food crops to meet this need, and improving photosynthesis in plants holds great possibilities to solving these issues. 

In honor of the IGB's anniversary, we're revisiting some of the history of our institute over the past 15 years with a series of articles highlighting IGB people, projects, and research.

Improving crop yields in collaboration with RIPE

Scientists having been breeding plants for over a century with the goal of feeding hungry people across the world. To that end, the Green Revolution in the 1960s used new technologies to increase food production in scale with the population growth. Unfortunately, these increases will not be enough in a few decades.