We are witnessing increasing pollution every day, this is done by human beings on a large scale, which causes increasing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide gas in the earth’s atmosphere leading to climate change on a vast level. However, the researchers said that it is genetically modified Supertrees that grow faster and more rapidly could take up CO2 and be used to address the climate crisis.
Forestation is one of the ways to reduce the effect of greenhouse gases on the planet and also reduce pollution, as more trees will grow, less pollution will happen. Because trees naturally absorb CO2 through the process called photosynthesis, releasing oxygen as they grow, and storing carbon in their branches, and roots.
The help techniques that are used in tobacco plants make photosynthesis more efficient and convert more carbon dioxide into sugars to create wood biomass. The Living Carbon team has inserted the genes of pumpkin and green algae which allow fast growth and better carbon storage by lowering the rate of a process called photorespiration, which wastes energy and allows to fixed carbon to re-enter the atmosphere as CO2.
Now the question is what is the science team at Living Carbon really up to, what they are trying to do exactly?
The answer is, their mission is to use cutting-edge plant biotechnology technology to find a solution to climate change based on a form of nature. They use everything possible to decrease the carbon level in the atmosphere and to fix it in the carbon in the form of plants. Also, they are trying to the life of the fixed carbon so that it doesn’t get back to the atmosphere as early.
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Even the biologists warn that high growth rates are not guaranteed in the forests as the team competes for sunlight and other plants and trees. GM trees may also need some intense watering and fertilizers to sustain their rapid growth of trees.
Results are majorly given the rate of climate change and increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. In the long breeding cycle of trees meanwhile, genetic engineering can produce fast results. But there are risks to planting those trees in the forests if they breed with other trees, then it can produce a negative effect on other plant and animal species, as this is one of the possibilities that may happen.
Living Carbon team also says if trees are a poplar-aspen hybrid that can only reproduce from cuttings and they do not produce pollen, the trees cannot cross-pollinate with other trees present in the forests.
Here the most important question is,
How the engineering helps the trees to suck up more carbon?
Well, trees are helping humanity to reduce carbon, on a global scale by doing photosynthesis, carbon gets converted into sugars and nutrients for downstream usage by essentially all living organisms.
So, the biochemical basis of photosynthesis depends on the central enzyme called RuBisCo. And the enzyme RuBisCo essentially takes carbon dioxide from the air then fixes it, and converts it into biomolecules. And RuBisCo also takes oxygen in place of CO2 in a reaction which is called oxygenation that produces a toxic by-product called glycolate.
The team are doing trials for the past few years. The 1/6th, around 135, tree species in the US may face extinction due to drastic climate change, deforestation, cutting, harmful insect species, or some disease. And even though field trials of a GM chestnut tree have shown the obstacle to a harmful fungal disease that wiped out billions of American chestnuts at one time.
California’s giant redwood trees are resistant to wildfires, climate change, and disease, and store more carbon than any other species in the world. But the thing is, Redwoods are not suitable for every forestry-type tree, so creating a climate-adaptable tree through breeding programs that may fit into local ecosystems is the goal. But in the rush or in the hurry to fix the climate problem, increase CO2 uptake, and carbon storage, GM Supertrees are only may be part of that solution.
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