Prof. Dario Leister is chair of Plant Molecular Biology at LMU Munich
Dario undertook his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Genetics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research in 1995. This was followed by a Habilitation in Genetics at the University of Tübingen in 2001. Since 2005 he has held the position of Professor (Chair) of Plant Molecular Biology/Botany at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU). From 2013 to 2016 he was founding director of the Copenhagen Plant Science Center. He is acting as coordinating PI of the ERC Synergy Cluster “PhotoRedesign” since 2020.
Title: Enhancing photosynthesis: how can we redesign the light reactions?
Webinar date: Tuesday 4th October 2022 14.00 CET
Abstract: Previous results indicate that crop yield could be enhanced if the efficiency and resilience of the light reactions of photosynthesis are modified. However, it can be doubted that inactivation or overexpression of one or few photosynthesis-related proteins alone will be sufficient to enhance photosynthesis. Instead, the complexity of photosynthesis most likely requires the addition, modification and fine-tuning of multiple components which is technically difficult, if not impossible, in flowering plants. In this presentation we discuss the background and state of the art of approaches aiming to enhance the light reactions of photosynthesis. Special emphasis will be given to the PhotoRedesign approach, the overall objective of which is to reconfigure the photosynthetic light reactions so they can harvest and safely convert energy from an expanded solar spectrum, employing synthetic biology and adaptive laboratory evolution.