Salk Institute for Biological Studies scientist, Dr. Joanne Chory, leads a lab that has spent decades studying the adaptive properties of plants. One such discovery has landed Chory with 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and a chance to greatly reduce the effects of climate change.
Chory has spent her career studying the genetics and adaptability of plant life, figuring out ways to manipulate the genes in order to get plants to exhibit desired changes.
Her present work, for which she was awarded, focuses on the compound, suberin, commonly known as cork.
Suberin has certain properties that make the compound ideally suited for storing carbon from the atmosphere. These properties are complimented by the long life of the compound, as it’s not biodegradable and, according to Chory, can last up to two thousand years.
For the most part, this compound is produced in cork trees, however, it is found in much lesser amounts within the roots of a lot of different plants.
Chory and her team are using their expertise to preform rudimentary cross-breeding techniques on chic pea, as well as other harvest plants, to produce much higher quantities of Suberin.
Focused on plants with larger, deeper roots, Chory said, “we can make a plant that makes 20 percent more Suberin then it usually does.”
After analyzing the numbers, Chory believes that if 5 percent of U.S. farmland was dedicated to growing these modified, Suberin producing plants, that we could fix up to 50 percent of all the CO2 our country emits into the atmosphere.
5 percent doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually a large chunk of farmland, however, if Chory is correct in her analysis, this could represent an extremely cheap method to effectively combat the effects of climate change and growing CO2 emission.
EcoTech 