In the News
Recent Salk news from the Plant biology team
Bezos Earth Fund donates $30 million to Salk Institute for innovative climate change research
The Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI) is an innovative, scalable and bold approach to fight climate change by optimizing a plant’s natural ability to capture and store carbon and …
Salk Institute and Sempra Energy announce project to advance plant-based carbon capture and storage research
SAN DIEGO and LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute and Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) today announced a new project to advance plant-based carbon capture and sequestration research, education and implementation to help …
Joanne Chory wins the 2020 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize
Joanne Chory, who pioneered the application of molecular genetics to plant biology and transformed our understanding of photosynthesis, will receive the 2020 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, Rockefeller’s preeminent award recognizing …
Salk promotes Wolfgang Busch to full professor
LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute has promoted Wolfgang Busch to the rank of professor for his groundbreaking contributions to plant biology. The promotion was based on recommendations by Salk faculty and …
Plant geneticist Todd Michael joins Salk Institute
LA JOLLA—Todd Michael will return to Salk as a research professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, where he will oversee his own research group as well as …
How plants sound the alarm about danger
LA JOLLA—Just like humans and other animals, plants have hormones. One role of plant hormones is to perceive trouble—whether an insect attack, drought or intense heat or cold—and then signal …
The Salk Institute to receive $12.5 million gift from Hess Corporation to accelerate development of plant-based carbon capture and storage
LA JOLLA—Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI) will receive a $12.5 million gift from Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) to advance two projects to enhance plants’ natural ability to store carbon and …
Machine learning helps plant science turn over a new leaf
LA JOLLA—Father of genetics Gregor Mendel spent years tediously observing and measuring pea plant traits by hand in the 1800s to uncover the basics of genetic inheritance. Today, botanists can …
Key enzyme found in plants could guide development of medicines and other products
LA JOLLA—Plants can do many amazing things. Among their talents, they can manufacture compounds that help them repel pests, attract pollinators, cure infections and protect themselves from excess temperatures, drought …
Getting to the root of how plants tolerate too much iron
LA JOLLA—Iron is essential for plant growth, but with heavy rainfall and poor aeration, many acidic soils become toxic with excess iron. In countries with dramatic flood seasons, such as …
Gene identified that will help develop plants to fight climate change
LA JOLLA—Hidden underground networks of plant roots snake through the earth foraging for nutrients and water, similar to a worm searching for food. Yet, the genetic and molecular mechanisms that …
Editing of RNA may play a role in chloroplast-to-nucleus communication
LA JOLLA—What will a three-degree-warmer world look like? How will plants fare in more extreme weather conditions? When experiencing stress or damage from various sources, plants use chloroplast-to-nucleus communication to …
Salk Institute initiative to receive more than $35 million to fight climate change
LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative to combat climate change using plants, led by Professor Joanne Chory, executive director of the Harnessing Plants Initiative, will receive funding of more …
New technologies enable better-than-ever details on genetically modified plants
LA JOLLA—Salk researchers have mapped the genomes and epigenomes of genetically modified plant lines with the highest resolution ever to reveal exactly what happens at a molecular level when a …
To repair DNA damage, plants need good contractors
LA JOLLA—When a building is damaged, a general contractor often oversees various subcontractors—framers, electricians, plumbers and drywall hangers—to ensure repairs are done in the correct order and on time.
Similarly, …
A switch to turn fragrances on and off
LA JOLLA—Salk Institute and Purdue University scientists have discovered the switch in plants that turns off production of terpenoids—carbon-rich compounds that play roles in plant physiology and are used by …
Understanding how DNA is selectively tagged with “do not use” marks
LA JOLLA—Not all of your genome needs to be active at any given time. Some regions are prone to hopping around the genome in problematic ways if left unchecked; others …
Self-defense for plants
LA JOLLA—When you see brown spots on otherwise healthy green leaves, you may be witnessing a plant’s immune response as it tries to keep a bacterial infection from spreading. Some …
Media Coverage
Jeff Bezos announces nearly $800 million in grants to 16 groups fighting climate change
November 17, 2020
– CNN
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos gives Salk Institute $30 million to help fight climate change
November 17, 2020
– The San Diego Union Tribune
Bezos makes first donations from $10 billion Earth Fund for fighting climate change
November 16, 2020
– The Washington Post
San Diego Scientists Hope Plants Can Store A Lot More Carbon
November 12, 2020
– KPBS
The Sorghum Solution?: The Salk Institute’s plant-based research to battle climate change gets a boost
November 10, 2020
– The San Diego Union Tribune
The weeds that could save the world
October 18, 2020
– Palatinate
Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative is featured in various outlets:
Episode 3 of a PBS series called “The Age of Nature.” Watch episode »
September, 2020
– KPBS
Carbon-Sucking Bionic Weeds Are New Front in Climate Change War
September 25, 2020
– Bloomberg Businessweek
Cropland vs Climate Change: A Conversation with Wolfgang Busch
September 1, 2020
– Discover Magazine
Into the Light: A Profile of Joanne Chory
March 1, 2020
– The Scientist
The power of plants to fight climate change
December, 2019
– The Economist
Genetic influence on root growth discovered
September 26, 2019
– The Western Producer
Salk Scientists Plan To Combat Climate Change With Plants
August 17, 2019
– KPBS
Can ‘Supercharged’ Plants Solve the Climate Crisis?
July 20, 2019
– Foreign Policy
Deep roots, edited genes and a plan to fight climate change with supercharged plants
July 18, 2019
– New Atlas
By making plant roots grow deeper, these geneticists hope to curb climate change
July 17, 2019
– PBS News Hour
The five: genetic fixes for the climate crisis
July 14, 2019
– The Guardian
Scientists Are Genetically Engineering Plants to Fight Climate Change
July 12, 2019
– Vice
The Plan to Grab the World’s Carbon with Supercharged Plants
April 26, 2019
– Wired
Scientists work to alter plants to fight climate crisis
April 17, 2019
– CNN
Salk Institute gets $35 million for ‘audacious’ plan to fight global warming with carbon-hungry plants
April 16, 2019
– The San Diego Union Tribune
Could a superplant save the planet?
Jan 31, 2019
– Financial Times
Scientists aim to fight climate change with super plants
Nov 17, 2017
– LA Times
Salk scientists describe strategy to address climate change using plants
Voice of America (VOA)