Genetic Super Crops May Help Us Fight Climate Change

By Christina P. Hooton

Climate change has the potential to affect many aspects of our lives, including the food we eat. When disastrous floods, droughts, and diseases ravage farmlands, crops suffer. To prevent massive disruption to our food supply, scientists are trying to make plants stronger and amp up their climate change-fighting powers.

Resilient Rice

One significant development is the use of genetically modified rice in India. This special type of rice contains a genetic material called Sub1A, which allows the plants to survive underwater for up to two weeks, making them resistant to severe flooding. One farmer who adopted this genetically modified rice reported that they were able to save half of their crops after devastating floods.

Carbon Capturing Machines

Roughly 30 percent of the carbon dioxide released by humans each year is absorbed by plants. Scientists are actively trying to boost this capability by optimizing photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy. 

Plants have a natural safety valve that protects them from sun damage, venting sunlight as heat instead of absorbing it when the rays are too strong. In this mode, plants capture less carbon. To help leaves respond to the changing sun faster, scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign increased the levels of three proteins that control these safety valves in tobacco plants. These altered genes made the plants grow 14 to 20 percent larger, allowing them to store more carbon in their tissues.

And that’s not the only tweak scientists are looking to make. A team of University of Essex researchers extracted genes from different types of pond scum to enhance tobacco plants. They pulled genes from cyanobacteria to improve the conversion of CO₂ into sugars and borrowed genes from red algae to increase the amount of light captured. The tobacco plants ended up growing 27 percent larger and were better at handling water conditions.

Robust Roots

Carbon capture begins above ground for plants, but what’s happening below the soil is just as important. When plants die, microbes in the soil consume the captured carbon and spew it and other greenhouse gases into the air. Deeper and denser roots can help retain carbon for longer periods.

Wolfgang Busch, a plant biologist at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, has been collecting root photos and videos to find genes that can help plants grow deeper and bigger root systems. His team has identified 50 genes that can make this happen, including one that makes A. thaliana plants grow roots twice as deep.

Genetic modifications like these are exciting advancements that offer promise in a changing climate for farmers and society as a whole.