In a recent article from The Washington Post, it states that scientists are working to develop a tree that could ease the production of paper, resulting in less energy use and less pollution.
The Red Lake Nation News also reported on this. In their article, it states that "Almost gave me a heart attack, recalled Wang, a geneticist here at North Carolina State University.
The thin, white, coaster-size circle of paper Wang was holding in his lab was anything but ordinary. He and his colleagues made this piece of paper from genetically edited wood - a material his team hopes will transform the way paper and other wood products are produced."
NC State University has been working on this project for a while. In an article published in Science.org, it states that "separating the cellulose from other substances in the plant, such as the stiff, woody material called lignin, comes with a heavy environmental toll. Every year, paper mills generate millions of tons of chemical waste and more than 150 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Today in Science, researchers report they have found a way to reduce that burden. By using CRISPR gene-editing tools, they grew engineered poplar trees with far less lignin than usual. Milling these trees, they argue, could lower papermaking pollution while saving the industry billions of dollars."
In a press release from NC State, it says "Led by NC State CRISPR pioneer Rodolphe Barrangou and tree geneticist Jack Wang, a team of researchers used predictive modeling to set goals of lowering lignin levels, increasing the carbohydrate to lignin (C/L) ratio, and increasing the ratio of two important lignin building blocks - syringyl to guaiacyl (S/G) - in poplar trees. These combined chemical characteristics represent a fiber production sweet spot, Barrangou and Wang say.
We're using CRISPR to build a more sustainable forest, said Barrangou, the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at NC State and co-corresponding author of the paper. CRISPR systems provide the flexibility to edit more than just single genes or gene families, allowing for greater improvement to wood properties."
You can read more about it by clicking here.
Helen Roush is Executive Vice President of Paperitalo Publications.
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