Qu Yuchen, Mueller-Cajar Oliver, Yamori Wataru
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Agri-ecosystem Services, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
J Exp Bot. 2023 Jan 11;74(2):591-599. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac340.
The world's population may reach 10 billion by 2050, but 10% still suffer from food shortages. At the same time, global warming threatens food security by decreasing crop yields, so it is necessary to develop crops with enhanced resistance to high temperatures in order to secure the food supply. In this review, the role of Rubisco activase as an important factor in plant heat tolerance is summarized, based on the conclusions of recent findings. Rubisco activase is a molecular chaperone determining the activation of Rubisco, whose heat sensitivity causes reductions of photosynthesis at high temperatures. Thus, the thermostability of Rubisco activase is considered to be critical for improving plant heat tolerance. It has been shown that the introduction of thermostable Rubisco activase through gene editing into Arabidopsis thaliana and from heat-adapted wild Oryza species or C4Zea mays into Oryza sativa improves Rubisco activation, photosynthesis, and plant growth at high temperatures. We propose that developing a universal thermostable Rubisco activase could be a promising direction for further studies.
到2050年，世界人口可能达到100亿，但仍有10%的人口面临粮食短缺。与此同时，全球变暖通过降低作物产量威胁粮食安全，因此有必要培育对高温具有更强抗性的作物，以确保粮食供应。在本综述中，基于近期研究结果的结论，总结了核酮糖-1,5-二磷酸羧化酶/加氧酶激活酶（Rubisco activase）作为植物耐热性重要因素的作用。Rubisco激活酶是一种决定Rubisco激活的分子伴侣，其热敏感性会导致高温下光合作用的降低。因此，Rubisco激活酶的热稳定性被认为对提高植物耐热性至关重要。研究表明，通过基因编辑将耐热的Rubisco激活酶导入拟南芥，以及从适应高温的野生稻品种或C4玉米导入水稻，可改善高温下Rubisco的激活、光合作用和植物生长。我们认为，开发一种通用的耐热Rubisco激活酶可能是未来研究的一个有前景的方向。
