<Emphasis Type="Italic">ccaA</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">FBP/SBPase</Emphasis> Derived From Cyanobacteria Improved Photosynthetic Capacity in Rice

Two cyanobacterial genes ccaA and FBP/SBPase related to CO₂ hydration and Calvin cycle were induced into rice plants. Three homologous transgenic strains were generated with ccaA and FBP/SBPase alone or in combination independently and grown under field conditions. The biochemical, physiological, and leaf anatomic results indicated that stomatal and mesophyll conductance to CO₂, net photosynthetic rate, carboxylation efficiency, and other physiological and biochemical parameters increased significantly in the overexpression strains with FBP/SBPase and CcaA + FBP/SBPase but not in the CcaA strain. Leaf anatomy structure showed no significant modifications between the transgenic and wild-type strains. The CcaA protein was shown to be located in the cytoplasm. These results showed that the effect on improving photosynthetic capacity by FBP/SBPase was better than by CcaA, and only when CcaA was co-transformed with FBP/SBPase was the synergistic effect observed. The multigene-stacking approaches and their synergistic action for improving the photosynthetic capacity in rice are discussed.