New pathway engineered into plants lets them suck up more CO

"And, well, it worked remarkably well. The plants carrying all the genes for the McG cycle weighed two to three times as much as control plants that only had some of the genes. They had more leaves, the leaves themselves were larger, and the plants produced more seeds. In a variety of growing conditions, the plants with an intact McG cycle incorporated more carbon, and they did so without increasing their water uptake."

"Having a two-carbon output also worked as expected. By feeding the plants radioactive bicarbonate, they were able to trace the carbon showing up in the expected molecules. And imaging confirmed that the plants were making so many lipids that their cells formed internal pockets containing nothing but fatty materials. Triglyceride levels increased by factors of 100 or more. So, by a variety of measures, the plants actually did better with an extra pathway for fixing carbon."

"There are a number of cautions, though. For starters, it's not clear whether what we're learning using a small weed will also apply to larger plants or crops, or really anything much beyond Arabidopsis at the moment. It could be that having excess globs of fat floating around the cell has consequences for something like a tree. Plants grown in a lab also tend to be provided with a nutrient-rich soil,"

Plants carrying all genes for the McG cycle weighed two to three times as much as controls that only had some genes. These plants produced more leaves, larger leaves, and more seeds across varied growing conditions. Carbon incorporation increased without a corresponding rise in water uptake. Radioactive bicarbonate tracing and imaging confirmed two-carbon output and extensive lipid production, including internal lipid pockets and triglyceride increases by factors of 100 or more. Cautions include uncertain applicability beyond Arabidopsis, potential impacts of excess intracellular fat on larger plants, nutrient-rich lab conditions, and unclear long-term carbon sequestration.

Read at Ars Technica