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Climate change is going to put a severe strain on the ability of the world’s plants to survive. Entire ecosystems could collapse with the loss of key plants, and agriculture could implode as we know it. Though over time these plants might evolve and develop more robust traits to beat the heat and survive harsher weather, things may be warming too rapidly for us to simply wait for evolution to take the wheel.
Scientists at Stanford University think they may have a solution: genetic circuits that can turn the dial on specific genes to control the root growth of plants, paving the way to developing “smart plants” that can respond to climate change. The team tested out these new circuits by applying them to tobacco leaves and arabidopsis plants, and published the results Thursday in the journal Science.
“This is in some ways a landmark because we’ve developed a method and pipeline for controlling gene expression at a level of resolution that wasn’t possible before,” José Dinneny, a Stanford biologist who led the research, told The Daily Beast. “I equate it to something like Minecraft, where you can take building blocks and create what you want with them.”