Uncovering the biofuel potential of plants that breathe in the dark

Newcastle University is paricipatingtin an £8.8-million project to explore the biofuel potential of plants found growing in some of the world's harshest environments.

The five-year project funded by the United States department of energy will explore the genetic mechanisms of crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), or 'nocturnal photosynthesis', a process exhibited by certain desert plants and first discovered at Newcastle University in the 1950s.

Unlike most plants which photosynthesize during the day, CAM plants take up carbon dioxide at night, allowing them to close their pores – or stomata – during the day and massively reduce water loss.

Taking in CO2 at night, the CAM plants build up a store of carbon which is used to power photosynthesis during the day.  It is this property which enables CAM plants such as the prickly pear and agave to live in some of the world's harshest environments.

UK lead Dr Anne Borland, a reader in Molecular Plant Physiology at Newcastle University, said the aim was to further develop our understanding of these plants with a view to redesigning biofuel crops that could be grown on economically poor agricultural land.

''The long-term goal of the proposed research is to enhance plant adaptability to hotter, drier climates,'' explains Dr Borland.