Climate change challenges, plant science solutions

Eckardt, N., Ainsworth, E., Bahuguna, R., Broadley, Martin

, Busch, W., Carpita, N., Castrillo, G., Chory, J., DeHaan, L., Duarte, C., +19 more...Henry, A., Krishna Jagadish, S., Langdale, J., Leakey, A., Liao, J., Lu, K., McCann, M., McKay, J., Odeny, D., De Oliveira, E., Platten, J., Rabbi, I., Rim, E. Y., Ronald, P., Salt, D., Shigenaga, A., Wang., E., Wolfe, M. and Zhang, X. (2022) Climate change challenges, plant science solutions. The Plant Cell, 35 (1). 24 - 66. 10.1093/plcell/koac303

Copy

Climate change is a defining challenge of the 21st century, and this decade is a critical time for action to mitigate the worst effects on human populations and ecosystems. Plant science can play an important role in developing crops with enhanced resilience to harsh conditions (e.g. heat, drought, salt stress, flooding, disease outbreaks) and engineering efficient carbon-capturing and carbon-sequestering plants. Here, we present examples of research being conducted in these areas and discuss challenges and open questions as a call to action for the plant science community.

Item Type	Article
Open Access	Gold
Additional information	Collaborative research in the J.K. McKay (Colorado State University) and C. Topp (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) labs is funded by U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy award DE-AR0000826 (variation in NUE and root growth responses to N in rice breeding lines) and by funding from Wells Fargo IN2 (carbon sequestration potential of hemp crops grown for grain and fiber). The work of HPI is funded by gifts from the TED Audacious Program, the Bezos Earth Fund, the Hess Corporation, SEMPRA Energy and others. The NextGen Cassava Breeding project is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Grant INV-007637). Research on improving photosynthetic water use efficiency by the A.D.B. Leakey group is funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (DE-SC0018277 and DE-SC0018420). The C4 Rice project is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Oxford (INV-002970). Work in the P.C. Ronald lab is funded by gifts from the CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE and grants from the National Science Foundation (2027795 to P.C.R.), the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health (GM122968 and GM55962 to P.C.R.), and the Joint BioEnergy Institute funded by the US Department of Energy (No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 to J.C.M and P.C.R.).
Date Deposited	05 Dec 2025 10:35
Last Modified	19 Dec 2025 14:56