Science
Salk Institute
Harnessing the Power of Plants
to Combat Climate Change
T
76 GBSAN.COM | OCTOBER 2019
he Salk Institute has recently launched the Harnessing Plants Initiative, which seeks to develop
plants that can help combat climate change by storing increased amounts of carbon within their
roots to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. In addition to identifying how plants can grow deeper roots,
the initiative seeks to find ways for plants to grow more roots and to hold more carbon in those roots.
In one critical discovery related to the initiative, Salk Associate Professor Wolfgang Busch
discovered a gene that determines whether roots grow deep or shallow in the soil. Deeper roots
mean that carbon can be buried deeper underground, where it will stably remain for far longer.
“We are incredibly excited about this first discovery on the road to realizing the goals of the Harnessing
Plants Initiative,” Associate Professor Wolfgang Busch, senior author of the paper describing
the discovery shared with GB Magazine. “Reducing atmospheric CO2 levels is one of the great
challenges of our time, and it is personally very meaningful to me to be working toward a solution.”