Scientists have engineered sugarcane and sorghum to take advantage of rising levels of carbon dioxide, allowing these crops to grow bigger.
Scientists have engineered sugarcane and sorghum to take advantage of rising levels of carbon dioxide, allowing these crops to grow bigger.
To achieve this, researchers focused on the enzyme Rubisco. Plants deploy Rubisco to help capture carbon dioxide for use in photosynthesis. But sometimes Rubisco can consume oxygen instead, slowing growth. As humans pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Rubisco works more efficiently, helping capture more carbon dioxide, which helps plants grow faster.
Rising carbon dioxide levels haven’t yielded the same benefits for all plants, however. A small number of plants are already highly efficient, having evolved a pump that concentrates carbon dioxide in their cells. Such plants — which include corn, sugarcane, and sorghum — are limited less by the amount of carbon dioxide in the air than by the amount of Rubisco in their leaves.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
Photo Credit: Schwoaze via Pixabay
