Molecular Biological Approaches to Environmental Effects on Photosynthesis

Abstract

The application of molecular techniques to problems in plant biology has yielded a wealth of important information. In the area of biotechnology, the past few years have seen molecular and transgenic technology applied to solving problems of reduced yield due to viral and insect attack. A natural progression from this is the utilization of these powerful techniques to the analysis of stress responses in plants. This chapter addresses the molecular biological approaches which are available to investigate the effects of environmental stress on the photosynthetic apparatus. Enormous progress has been made in understanding the molecular biology of chloroplast biogenesis but a full picture awaits the elucidation of the regulatory mechanisms which control this process. In order to illustrate how recombinant DNA methods can be used to investigate stress effects, examples have been taken from other systems. Transgenic plant technology and the application of molecular genetic analysis to mutants also have the potential to make an enormous impact on this area of research. Finally, some examples are given of situations in which stress effects on photosynthesis have begun to be investigated at the molecular level. It is only by understanding the molecular bases of these responses that we will be able to engineer crops which overcome negative effects of stress on yield.