Carbon Capture Superheroes: How Seagrass Gene Editing Could Change The Future
Think about the climate crisis for a second. Seems like a lost cause right? Well… maybe not.
By Bianca Gibbs
Almost everyone knows about the climate emergency and what is being done to stop it. Stopping (or reducing) the use of energy sources that release CO₂ and going vegan are just 2 of many efforts that people have made to stop CO₂ emissions.
Carbon capture is one effort being made to save the planet. Editing the genes of seagrass is just one of many ways to reduce climate change and global warming to save our planet.
Operation Seagrass
What are seagrasses?
Seagrasses have multiple purposes in a marine ecosystem. Not only do they improve water clarity in their area, but they can also act as microhabitats for local marine life. In addition, seagrasses aid the reduction of climate change and global warming by taking in CO₂, also known as carbon capture.
One carbon capture method is editing the genes of plants so they can capture more CO₂ from our atmosphere. Seagrasses are one of these plants. Studies have shown that seagrasses can capture up to 35 times more CO₂ than terrestrial plants.
Now you might be thinking: “Just plant more seagrasses right?”
While this is a great solution, there is a way to make it even more efficient. Gene editing is the process of changing the genetic sequence in an organism to change the way it functions.
What Gene Editing Can Do
Gene editing can be used to improve the efficiency of carbon capture in seagrasses, which could have a huge impact on climate change and global warming.
Imagine how much carbon we could pull out of the atmosphere if we improved the efficiency of a currently productive system! Seagrasses have the potential to play a significant role in solving climate change and global warming and will change our environment for the better.
Seagrasses already absorb 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, but gene-edited seagrass would allow the plants to absorb more CO₂ and improve the condition of our planet. The ocean is also a huge carbon sink, pulling around 25% of all CO₂ emissions into it. If marine plants could absorb and store more CO₂, it would allow the ocean to pull even more CO₂ out of the atmosphere, causing the effects of climate change and global warming to abate.
How Does Gene Editing Apply to Seagrasses?
There are a variety of ways that plants (including seagrasses) can be edited to capture more carbon, one being editing the RuBisCO (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) gene to improve the carbon capture aspect of photosynthesis.
How it Works
The RuBisCO gene attaches itself to CO₂ during photosynthesis and turns the CO₂ into oxygen. By enhancing the carbon capture aspect of RuBisCO, we can allow the plant to fight climate change without making any major changes.
Initially, you need to select both a seagrass you want to edit and a method of editing (CRISPR-Cas9* is the simplest to use). Subsequently, you find a gene that you want to edit. In this case, we are editing the RuBisCO gene.
Afterward, allow the guide RNA (gRNA) to guide CRISPR-Cas9 to the specific gene and cut the mutation that needs to be fixed. Consequently, the cells naturally repair the DNA. This gene-editing procedure will allow seagrasses to capture and store more CO₂.
*CRISPR is a gene-editing tool that is composed of the Cas9 protein (used to cut the DNA sequence at the desired place), and the guide RNA (or gRNA) leads the Cas9 protein to the sequence that needs to be cut.
What’s Next
Gene editing is a step in the right direction towards a greener future, but we still need to remember that we must also contribute to the reduction of climate change and global warming in any way we can. Conserving nature is one way to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere.
While our “super plants” may be more efficient than unedited plants, we can’t destroy the plants we already have. These plants not only capture CO₂ from the atmosphere, but they also give homes to wildlife living in their ecosystem, protect soil from erosion, and much more.
Nearly 15% of seagrasses are currently under the threat of extinction. These seagrasses are not only a key part in solving climate change, but are vital to their ecosystems, supplying their habitats with the necessary resources for them to function.
Other Concerns
There are many opposing views to gene editing in seagrasses such as how the gene-edited seagrasses will affect surrounding marine species, if gene editing could lead to a lack of biodiversity, and other unintended consequences such as off-target effects.
Of course, researchers will be monitoring how gene-edited seagrasses affect other marine species with extreme caution and resolve any problems before they grow out of control.
Gene editing can also be seen as “playing God” but with this type of gene editing procedure, we are not changing the seagrasses entirely, only a small part of changing Earth for the better. If gene editing does get out of hand, remember that you can speak up for what you believe in!
Current Efforts
CRISPR co-inventor and founder of the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), Jennifer Doudna, and her crew at the IGI are working to enhance the ability of plants to capture and store more CO₂ from the atmosphere. The program started in 2022 and will last for 3 years (ends in 2025), which will give researchers enough time to do research and any problems or setbacks that may appear.
Since most crops grow faster than the average plant, scientists are working with agricultural plants first to speed up the research process. Two of the goals of this program are to allow plants to capture and store more CO₂ and also speed up the growth rate of plants (the increased CO₂ intake allows photosynthesis to speed up, hence the plant grows faster).
Their program is the blueprint for how all plants (including seagrasses) will be edited in the future.
Last But Not Least
Seagrass gene editing could be a vital solution to solving climate change. Seagrasses have lots of potential when it comes to carbon capture. Their ability to capture CO₂ from the atmosphere more efficiently than terrestrial plants makes them significant in the world of carbon capture. Gene-edited seagrasses have an even greater ability to capture CO₂ and could be the carbon capture superheroes we have been searching for.
Although this may seem complicated and far-fetched, it is a realistic idea that we could use to solve the environmental emergency. Gene editing is a relatively new concept but it gives lots of hope for a brighter, greener future.
