Odd Plant May Turbocharge Crop Yields

Researchers discover molecular trick in hornworts that could boost photosynthetic efficiency in crops like wheat and rice.

Published on Mar. 6, 2026

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An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants, called hornworts, that could eventually be engineered into crops like wheat and rice to dramatically boost how efficiently they convert sunlight into food. The key is an unusual protein component the researchers have named RbcS-STAR, which acts like molecular velcro to cause Rubisco enzymes to cluster together, improving their efficiency.

Why it matters

Improving photosynthetic efficiency even modestly could increase crop yields while reducing agriculture's environmental footprint—a crucial goal as the world works toward more sustainable food production. The discovery marks an important advance in a field with enormous potential impact.

The details

The study, led by researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), Cornell University, and the University of Edinburgh, focuses on the enzyme Rubisco, which is responsible for capturing carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis but is slow and inefficient. Many species of algae have evolved a workaround, packing Rubisco into tiny, specialized compartments inside their cells called pyrenoids to concentrate carbon dioxide around the enzyme. Scientists have long dreamed of installing this turbocharging system into food crops, which lack pyrenoids, but algae machinery has proven stubbornly difficult to transfer. The breakthrough came from studying hornworts, the only land plants known to possess CO₂-concentrating compartments similar to those in algae. The researchers discovered that hornworts have modified Rubisco itself to do the job, using an unusual protein component they named RbcS-STAR that acts like molecular velcro to cause Rubisco proteins to constellate.

  • The study was published in Science on March 6, 2026.

The players

Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI)

An independent nonprofit research institute affiliated with Cornell University that is committed to advancing solutions for global food security, agricultural sustainability, and human health.

Fay-Wei Li

BTI Associate Professor who co-led the research.

Tanner Robison

A graduate student working with Li and a co-first author of the paper.

Alistair McCormick

Professor at the University of Edinburgh who co-led the research.

Laura Gunn

Assistant professor at Cornell University who co-led the research.

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What they’re saying

“Rubisco is arguably the most important enzyme on the planet because it's the entry point for nearly all carbon in the food we eat. But it's slow and easily distracted by oxygen, which wastes energy and limits how efficiently plants can grow.”

— Fay-Wei Li, BTI Associate Professor (Mirage News)

“We assumed hornworts would use something similar to what algae use—a separate protein that gathers Rubisco together. Instead, we discovered they've modified Rubisco itself to do the job.”

— Tanner Robison, Graduate student (Mirage News)

“We even tried attaching just the STAR tail to Arabidopsis's native Rubisco, and it triggered the same clustering effect. That tells us STAR is truly the driving force. It's a modular tool that can work across different plant systems.”

— Alistair McCormick, Professor (Mirage News)

“We have built a Rubisco house, but it won't be an efficient house unless we update the HVAC.”

— Laura Gunn, Assistant professor (Mirage News)

“This research shows that nature has already tested solutions we can learn from. Our job is to understand those solutions well enough to apply them where they're needed most—in the crops that feed the world.”

— Fay-Wei Li, BTI Associate Professor (Mirage News)

What’s next

The researchers are now working to address the challenge of delivering CO2 to the Rubisco clusters in order to make the system more efficient for crop applications.

The takeaway

This discovery of a natural molecular mechanism to improve photosynthetic efficiency in plants could have a transformative impact on global food production, potentially boosting crop yields while reducing agriculture's environmental footprint.