Engineering leaf carbon metabolism to improve plant productivity

The world population is rapidly growing and a corresponding increase in food production is needed to support this expansion. However, the increase in crop yield as a result of the Green revolution has reached a plateau. To further increase the yield potential, the upper limit of plant productivity has to be raised, which has prompted us to put more research efforts into improving the photosynthetic capacity of plants. In the last decade, some prominent advances have been made in some research categories to improve photosynthesis, including enhancement of carbon fixation by increasing ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration, efficient use of photoassimilated triose phosphates in the synthesis of photosynthetic end products such as sucrose and leaf starch, and decrease in photorespiratory loss in C3 plants by establishment of the photorespiratory bypass. Here, we summarize recent progress in this field and propose possible manipulation strategies to further improve photosynthesis.