Can Mutant Plants End Climate Change?

Can an enzyme save the planet? It’s highly unlikely, but kind of fun to think about. Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine discovered a “mutant enzyme” that, at least in theory, has interesting implications for global warming.

We all know plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis. Some experiments have shown that the more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the more a plant will grow. But many people think there’s a limit, that plants won’t simply continue to take in more CO2 the more we send it into the atmosphere through fossil fuel emissions and burning down rainforests.

The enzyme the researchers found seems to “enable plants to use and convert carbon dioxide more quickly,” according to a story on the web site Science Daily. In theory, a gene for the enzyme, inserted into plant DNA, could spread to other plants and ultimately become a part of the gene pool, helping plants take up more CO2 from the air and grow faster.

Of course, it’s preposterous to think of altering the gene pool of, say, entire rainforests, so the only real place you could use such a technique is in crop plantations. Still, it’s food for thought….