You know that leaves photosynthesise best in sunlight. Some leaves are lucky enough to be in sunlight, some are less productive in shade. Some have a problem that they can be in sun and shade, depending on how whatever’s casting a shadow moves. And each time they move from dark to light, or light to dark, leaves waste energy adapting to their new conditions. Now Feyissa and colleagues have discovered a gene they call BOOSTER (BSTR) that helps plants cope with changing light. It’s found in poplar trees, but the team found that other plants like Arabidopsis can also use it, and when they do it’s like a supercharger for photosynthesis.
The magic of the BOOSTER gene is that it helps plants manage light energy through improving non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) responses. Effectively, when a leaf moves from dark to light, it gets more light than it can cope with. NPQ helps a plant cope with bright light, by converting it to heat that the plant can radiate away. This prevents excessive light from damaging the plant. The problem is that turning NPQ on or off takes time and energy. The BOOSTER gene speeds up this process, allowing the plant to spend more effort turning light into food.
The BOOSTER gene is only found in poplar trees, but Feyissa and colleagues wondered if it could work in other plants. They tested BOOSTER by putting it into Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant used for examining genes. They found that Arabidopsis plants with the BOOSTER gene grew three times bigger than standard plants, and produced 50% more seeds. The success of the gene in a distantly related plant shows that BOOSTER could benefit many more plants than just poplar.
The study was the result of examining over seven hundred different poplar trees. The scientists watched how the trees grew in natural conditions and then analysed them to see which trees had more active BOOSTER genes. Feyissa and colleagues selected the most promising trees to study in detail in both field sites and greenhouses, where researchers tracked everything from photosynthesis rates to growth patterns.
Plants lose a surprising amount of energy moving between sun and shade. Quenching can persist for many minutes after a leaf is shaded, cutting the rate of photosynthesis and with it the potential for growth. Many plant scientists see photosynthesis as a critical step to improve the efficiency of crops. However, previous genetic approaches haven’t worked consistently across species. BOOSTER’s broad effectiveness could suggest new research that could make much more nutritious crops.
Feyissa, B.A., de Becker, E.M., Salesse-Smith, C.E., Shu, M., Zhang, J., Yates, T.B., Xie, M., De, K., Gotarkar, D., Chen, M.S.S., Jawdy, S.S., Carper, D.L., Barry, K., Schmutz, J., Weston, D.J., Abraham, P.E., Tsai, C.-J., Morrell-Falvey, J.L., Taylor, G., Chen, J.-G., Tuskan, G.A., Long, S.P., Burgess, S.J., & Muchero, W. 2025. An orphan gene BOOSTER enhances photosynthetic efficiency and plant productivity. Developmental Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2024.11.002
Cross-posted to Bluesky & Mastodon.
Cover image: Canva.
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