Our research bridges the gap between ancient evolutionary traits and modern crop science to understand and improve plant resilience
1. Photosynthetic Biodiversity at the Padova Botanical Garden
We utilize the historic Botanical Garden of Padova as a living laboratory to study how diverse plant lineages adapt to environmental change. Using portable instruments, we measure key parameters like Fv/Fm, Electron Transport Rate (ETR), and NPQ across seasons. By integrating this field data with laboratory studies on moss accessions, we gain a comprehensive view of how photosynthetic machinery has evolved to handle environmental heterogeneity
2. Enhancing Crops with Moss FLVs
To enhance the efficiency of crop photosynthesis under fluctuating light, we introduce ancestral “safety valves” into vascular plants. By expressing Flavodiiron proteins (FLVs) from the moss Physcomitriumpatens in tobacco, we enable a protective O2 photoreduction downstream Photosystem I (PSI). This mechanism prevents PSI photo-oxidation and relieves pressure on the electron transport chain, significantly improving photosynthetic efficiency and biomass potential in dynamic, real-world light environments