Too much of a good thing: photosynthesis under high light stress

Light is both an energy source and a potent stress factor. In order to balance the need for energy absorption to drive photosynthesis with the risk of over-exposure, plants and other photosynthetic organisms have evolved an elegant adaptive set of responses at the thylakoid level. Perhaps unsurprisingly, manipulating some of these responses can have important ramifications for plant productivity, especially under field conditions. This talk will describe the ongoing work in my group to map genetic determinants of photoprotective responses in field-grown diversity panels and mapping populations for sorghum and maize. I will also present some surprising recent findings on the combined impact of high light and suboptimal temperature in maize and our ongoing quest to identify control factors involved in mediating the effects of these two stress factors.