grist.org · 34 days ago

How the Humble Hornwort Could Supercharge Agriculture | Grist

Everything alive on Earth depends on a single enzyme called rubisco that makes photosynthesis possible, yet this essential protein is remarkably inefficient-easily confused, prone to creating toxic byproducts, and limited in its ability to help plants grow. Scientists have discovered that the humble hornwort, a tiny moss-like plant that grows in green sheets on the ground, has evolved a unique way to supercharge rubisco by concentrating carbon dioxide around it in specialized compartments called pyrenoids. As one researcher explains it, the hornwort "prevents rubisco from touching oxygen, because it puts it into a house and then pumps a bunch of CO2 into the house." By introducing the hornwort's special protein into other plants, researchers have successfully created these same structures, a breakthrough that could boost crop yields by as much as 60 percent while requiring less fertilizer and water. What makes this discovery so profound is that a plant overlooked for centuries may hold the key to feeding humanity more sustainably, simply by doing what it has quietly done all along.