Speaker: Andreas P.M. Weber, Professor, Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich-Heine-University

Most flowering land plants employ the canonical C3 mode of photosynthetic carbon assimilation. However, during the past 60 million years, variations in C3 photosynthesis, C4 photosynthesis, and C3-C4 photosynthesis have evolved frequently and independently, ~70 times. The majority of C4 plant species display a distinct Kranz leaf-anatomy and co-evolved metabolic and biochemical features that are not encountered in C3 plants. In C4, primary fixation of CO2 is spatially separated from carbon assimilation and reduction by the Calvin Benson Cycle. The work employs comparative pangenomics and synthetic biology to address aspects of the evolutionary transition from C3 to C4 and further examines the long-term implications of this evolution for global photosynthesis and climate change.