Image: Eric Goolsby, a former graduate student in the Donovan lab, is now a postdoc at Brown U. with Erika Edwards. His postdoc proposal to NSF has been recommeded for funding: "Identifying the genetic determinants of photosynthetic pathways in Portulaca: development of germplasm and genetic resources." All plants perform one of three types of photosynthesis. Two of these confer substantial stress tolerance, particularly under heat or drought stress. Most crops possess the third, less stress tolerant type of photosynthesis, and it is a goal of many breeding programs to give these crops more stress tolerance by changing the type of photosynthesis they perform. A major roadblock to doing this is a lack of knowledge of the complex genetic control that differentiates the three photosynthesis types. This work uses the unique genus Portulaca, a group of species whose members variously perform all three types of photosynthesis (and even shift among them), to better understand the genetic control of the anatomy and biochemistry underpinning the three types.
