Dr Florian Busch
Supervisor Details
Research Interests
Florian is a plant physiologist with a focus on studying physiological mechanisms related to photosynthesis. His research is guided by his interest in understanding on a mechanistic level how plants utilize available resources, such as light, water, CO2, and nutrients, and how they convert these resources to carbohydrates and ultimately plant biomass. This is not only interesting from the perspective of pure knowledge gain, but also has important consequences for society, which relies on harvested plant biomass for their food supply. In this field, his main focus of research is linking the biophysical processes of light harvesting and the properties of leaf-level CO2 diffusion with the biochemical processes of CO2 and nitrogen assimilation.
Work done in the Busch lab is based on two pillars: describing our current understanding of plant function by mathematical models and testing these models experimentally. In combination, they are a powerful tool to identify where our understanding is incomplete and to generate new hypotheses that help fill the gaps in our knowledge. While empirical models may yield accurate predictions of the magnitude of an effect, mechanistic models can be used to elucidate the drivers of an observed effect and can help answer the question why a plant behaves the way it does. The goal of our research is to deepen our understanding of how plant productivity relates to environmental factors and stresses. This understanding is an essential prerequisite to improving crop productivity in the face of population growth and global change.
To achieve this goal, Florian has developed novel measurement techniques (e.g. one to measure the notoriously difficult-to-estimate flux of photorespiration), designed and refined tools to analyze and experimental data (e.g. a new model to interpret carbon isotope discrimination signatures) and developed new mathematical models connecting biochemical processes in the leaf (e.g. linking photorespiration with nitrogen assimilation).
Scientific Inspiration
There are many people who have inspired me and for different reasons. I very much look up to people that can critically assess scientific data and take them for what they are, even if that means giving up a long-held belief that is now being contradicted.
Research Groups
Project Details
Dr Busch is the supervisor on the below project:
Quantifying the impact of photorespiration on the photosynthetic carbon uptake of plants
Secondary Supervisor(s): Professor Christine Foyer
University of Registration: University of Birmingham
BBSRC Research Themes: Sustainable Agriculture and Food (Plant and Crop Science)
No longer accepting applications
Project Outline
The main interest of the Busch laboratory revolves around the physiological functioning of plants. Projects focus on the fundamental nature of processes related to photosynthesis. Theoretical approaches involving mathematical modelling are combined with experimental approaches that are used to test the developed models. In combination, this allows for a prediction of plant responses to their environment on scales from the molecular level to the global carbon cycle.
Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on earth, providing the energy for almost all life on the planet and generates food for a human population of 8+ billion people. It is the aggregate result of different molecular, biochemical and biophysical processes that, as a sum, determine how effective a plant is in converting sun light and nutrients into plant biomass. The key enzyme responsible CO2 fixation is called Rubisco. In addition to CO2, it can also react with oxygen, which results in the subsequent release of previously fixed CO2. This process, photorespiration, is therefore often considered wasteful and considerable research efforts are directed at minimising photorespiration in crop plants. However, photorespiration also has many beneficial aspects and can even increase the overall CO2 uptake of plants, despite decreasing the efficiency of the carboxylation reaction of Rubisco.
The rate of photorespiration depends on many environmental factors, such as temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration. While higher temperatures promote photorespiratory CO2 release, higher CO2 concentrations decrease it. Quantifying the CO2 uptake of plants therefore requires a detailed understanding of how photorespiration responds to changes in the environment. This is particularly important for predicting the effects of climate change on plant productivity, as both temperatures and CO2 concentrations are expected to increase in the future. Understanding the effects of photorespiration under different environmental conditions is thus necessary for choosing successful strategies for crop improvement or deciding whether photorespiration should be attempted to be reduced in the first place. It is also paramount to forecasting future carbon uptake of forests.
This PhD project aims at quantifying the positive/negative effects of photorespiration and its impact on the overall carbon balance of plants. Experiments will be performed on staple crops such as wheat that are grown under highly controlled conditions in the laboratory and the Wolfson Advanced Glasshouses to simulate future environmental conditions. The project will include using and developing mathematical models of biochemical processes and assessing physiological properties of crop plants via photosynthetic gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence techniques.
Further Reading
Busch FA. 2020. Photorespiration in the context of Rubisco biochemistry, CO2 diffusion and metabolism. The Plant Journal 101(4): 919-939.
Busch FA, Sage RF, Farquhar GD. 2018. Plants increase CO2 uptake by assimilating nitrogen via the photorespiratory pathway. Nature Plants 4(1): 46-54.
Techniques
Mathematical modelling, photosynthetic gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, stable carbon isotope measurements.
Dr Busch is also co-supervisor on a project with Dr Alex Watson-Lazowski.
Previous Projects
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