Scientist who could change the world

Escalating food prices have reinforced the need for innovation in agriculture. To combat this, five ambitious scientists are profiled who are all determined to stop the world going hungry. The only European scientist to be included on the list, Dr Hibberd’s work explores the evolution and assembly of the photosynthetic apparatus in plants.

Some plants, especially various grasses growing in hot climates, have evolved ways to ‘supercharge’ photosynthesis. They achieve this by fixing carbon dioxide into a four carbon sugar (called C4) which is filtered into the cells that are carrying out photosynthesis. By doing this plants increase the amount of CO2 that they can use and the efficiency of photosynthesis.

This process is the target of Dr Hibberd’s work, trying to replicate the same supercharged C4 photosynthesis pathway in rice. He told Nature of his determination to succeed: “When people say to me, ‘don’t you think that’s ridiculous, to make C4 rice?’ I say that I’ve got 30 years before I retire. It would be defeatist of me to think I can’t understand the pathway very well. The projected benefits of having C4 rice are huge. If C4 rice can have 50% more yield, it would impact billions of people.”

Dr Hibberd’s research explores which genes have changed so that plants can photosynthesise in this ‘supercharged’ way. Describing the challenges that he faces, Dr Hibberd said: “C4 leaves have modifications in biochemistry, anatomy and organelle structure. That is why it’s really complicated.”

This isn’t holding Dr Hibberd back though. The C4 process has evolved independently many times before, meaning that “there is a biological precedent to say that there is some relatively easy or tractable route to get these changes.”

Working with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, Dr Hibberd’s research group is trying to transfer genes from Maize, which uses the C4 pathway, into rice. This could one day revolutionise the production of rice, a staple product for millions of people across the world.

The profile of Dr Julian Hibberd, along with four other researchers from the United States, China and Australia, appears in the 4 December issue of Nature.