Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Changing rice from C3 to C4 in order to feed our growing population

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

ScienceThe Development of C4 Rice: Current Progress and Future Challenges

I will be amazed if this works. The C3/C4 pathway split is a major evolutionary event in plants, and apparently we are poised to horizontally transfer this adaptation across lineages using genetic engineering. If this works, it will be an unprecedented feat of cultural evolution impacting biological evolution. It is feasible that years after our species is gone, C4 rice will live on… leaving a conundrum for the next species of evolutionary biologists to solve!

A Minor Post, Food, Genetic Engineering, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture

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