Raines, Christine A.

The realization that crop yields are reaching a plateau, while population increases continue at pace, has placed manipulation of photosynthesis in a central position to achieve increases in yield. Increasing flux through the C3 cycle will be a major focus of this effort. Through application of new technologies together with novel modeling approaches, increased yield through improved photosynthetic carbon fixation should be an attainable goal in the near to mid term. This Update article reviews the past approaches and successes in this area. An outline of some of the known targets for future work is given, and approaches to identify novel targets for exploitation are outlined.