A new research project is looking to genomics as a solution to decarbonization by genetically engineering plants to not only absorb more carbon from the atmosphere but hold on to it longer.

Vegetation plays a natural role in the reversal of greenhouse gas emissions by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. The Innovative Genomics Institute, or IGI, seeks to augment that process, backed by an $11 million commitment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization owned by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., and his wife, Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician and educator.

The project relies on the gene-editing tool CRISPR to give plants and soil microbes traits that improve their ability to capture and store carbon. CRISPR works at the molecular level like a pair of scissors, cutting the target DNA strand at a precise location where a new custom gene sequence can be inserted.

"This technology has the potential to supercharge the natural abilities of plants, enabling them to pull more carbon out of the atmosphere and store more carbon in their roots and the surrounding soil — providing a new set of innovative tools to address climate change," Chan said in a June 14 news release.

Carbon dioxide removal, the process of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, has seen a steady stream of investment in the last decade, especially from oil and gas producers, but it has yet to be proven at a commercial scale. Carbon capture technologies can either trap the pollutant as it is being emitted, such as from a smokestack, or vacuum it from ambient air using direct air capture.

Other initiatives seek to restore natural "carbon sinks," using reforestation or ocean ecosystem restoration to offset greenhouse gas emissions. However, such efforts are easily reversed by wildfire or human intervention.

According to the IGI, even when left alone, the carbon captured by vegetation does not stay out of the atmosphere for long: Carbon in the soil is released through respiration by microbes. Over the past 200 years, global soils have lost 487 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is roughly equivalent to the U.S.'s fossil carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution. The IGI said genome editing must allow the carbon to be retained in the soil for a longer period of time in order to have a meaningful impact on climate change.

"We've understood for some years that CRISPR genome editing could be used to help agriculture adapt to climate change," said IGI co-founder Jennifer Doudna, who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work on CRISPR. "It's a thrilling new step to apply the same toolkit to carbon removal and address climate change directly."

The project will be carried out in three research groups that will study commercial crops, with the aim of improving the carbon capture abilities of agricultural land.

The first group will focus on rice crops, tinkering with the process of photosynthesis to absorb carbon more efficiently, and root development to encourage carbon sequestration in the soil. A second group will study sorghum, a biomass crop, for genome-editing techniques that spur carbon dioxide removal. A third group's objective will be to develop ways of tracing the captured carbon and to study the soil microbial communities that help that carbon stay sequestered.

IGI Communications Director Andy Murdock said carbon credits are "certainly a possible outcome" of the project. "For this to have the desired impact at scale, adoption by farmers is key, and carbon credits are likely one of the incentives."

Murdock added that increased crop yields and a reduced need for fertilizer or irrigation are other factors that could help spur CRISPR adoption.

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