Considerations and conclusions mainly related to field applications on engineering plant photosynthesis

The review summarizes the contributions presented at the International Congress on Biophysics of Photosynthesis: from molecules to the field (Rome, 2-4 October 2019). We cover particularly those aspects of photosynthesis which are related to field applications with reference to recent attempts to engineer this fundamental biological process which is responsible for all primary productivity in the planet. More specifically, the subject will be first introduced by presenting short summaries of the contributions of synthetic biology and developments of phenotyping platforms related to greenhouse and field experiments. The light reactions will then then be considered, covering, light harvesting in plant canopies and in fluctuating light conditions, non-pho -tochemical quenching, chlorophyll-deficient genotypes, and PSII related experiments; a review follows on modified light reception systems tested in the field. The improvement of dark reactions via the control of photorespiration and its relation to resident or alien RuBisCO, mesophyll conductance and C3 to C4 modifications, was also introduced, including the exploitation of modified dark reactions tested in the field. Finally, the conference speakers have considered RuBisCO and aquaporin overexpression, bypasses of the photorespiration and modification of C3-type photosynthesis in to more efficient C4-type. Table 1 provides a selected list of biotechnological experiments in tuning photosynthesis efficiency in field crops.