Project set to explore biofuel potential of desert plants

According to a statement, the five-year project funded by the US 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.



Most plants photosynthesise during the day but CAM plants take up carbon dioxide at night, allowing them to close their pores — or stomata — during the day and 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, and it is this property that 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.