Crop leaves in full sunlight dissipate damaging excess absorbed light energy as heat. This protective dissipation continues after the leaf transitions to shade, reducing crop photosynthesis. A bioengineered acceleration of this adjustment increased photosynthetic efficiency and biomass in tobacco in the field. But could that also translate to increased yield in a food crop? Here we bioengineered the same change into soybean. In replicated field trials, photosynthetic efficiency in fluctuating light was higher and seed yield in five independent transformation events increased by up to 33%. Despite increased seed quantity, seed protein and oil content were unaltered. This validates increasing photosynthetic efficiency as a much needed strategy toward sustainably increasing crop yield in support of future global food security.

The impact of the crystallinity of spray-dried inulins on their stability and physical properties was investigated after a conditioning of 1 week at different relative humidity levels (0% to 94%) at 20°C. An environmental scanning electron microscopy study showed that the amorphous powders hardened at a relative humidity storage between 59% and 75%; while their semi-crystalline counterparts were partially agglomerated but friable in the same conditions. Caking was observed when the glass transition temperature of the amorphous phase of the material dropped below the storage temperature of the powder. It resulted in a crystallization of the structural units of varying lengths composing inulin, but also an increase of the crystallinity of the semi-crystalline ones. This study showed the importance of the crystallinity of inulin on its stability and physical properties during storage which is of crucial importance for the shelf-life of food and pharmaceutical products in the dry state.

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