Guest Speaker- Berkley Walker
Affiliation- Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
Title- Photorespiration as a crossroads between photosynthesis, metabolism, and leaf energetics
Host- Shawn Mansfield
Bio:
Associate Professor in Plant Biology and the Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University
Photorespiration is initiated when Rubisco, the initial enzyme of carbon fixation, reacts with molecular oxygen instead of carbon dioxide. This reaction produces toxic intermediates that must be recycled at the cost of energy and previously fixed carbon. This cost is not trivial, resulting in the loss of 320 million dietary calories annually from the Midwest alone and consuming 30-40% of a C3 plant’s energy during the day. In this talk, I will discuss efforts to understand, model and minimize the impact of photorespiration under current and future climates and mechanisms behind the unexpected links between photorespiration and plant nutrition. I will also outline our work discovering a novel photosynthetic carbon concentrating mechanism in Cyanidioschyzon merolae, a red algae that grows in volcanic hot springs.
Biography:
Berkley Walker studies the multi-scale impact and mechanisms of photosynthesis…with a special emphasis on how photorespiration interacts with central metabolism and plant nutrition. He received his PhD at Washington State University and postdoctoral training with the United States Department of Agriculture at the University of Illinois before accepting an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship to Heinrich-Heine University in Duesseldorf, Germany. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Energy-Michigan State University Plant Research Laboratory. He is a respected researcher and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, submitted a patent for an improvement to photosynthesis and given over 50 oral presentations domestically and internationally.