Can gene-editing technology CRISPR create new crops that help fight climate change as they grow? Thats what a group of researchers hopes to do with $11 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The funding will go toward efforts to enhance plants starting with rice and soil so that theyre better at trapping carbon dioxide. The effort, which was announcedlast week, is being led by the Innovative Genomics Institute, which was founded byNobel laureateand co-inventor of CRISPR Jennifer Doudna.

[Jennifer] and I saw eye to eye on climate and how big of a problem it is in the world. And we just didnt want to sit on the sidelines anymore, says Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) executive director Brad Ringeisen.

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The rice genome is easier to manipulate than other crops, according to Ringeisen, in part because its already been studied a lot and iswell understood. One of the scientists involved in IGIs initiative is Pamela Ronald, whose research is widely known for leading to thedevelopment of rice varietiesthat tolerate flooding for much longer than other types using a different type of genetic engineering thats more likeprecision breeding. That rice is now grown by more than 6 million farmers across India and Bangladesh,according toRonalds laboratory at the University of California, Davis.

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Climate change-fighting rice? Plants trap carbon dioxide as they grow and CRISPR gene editing can optimize this process - Genetic Literacy Project

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