---
title: "Scientists Are Gene-Hacking Plants to Make Them Enormous"
description: "Researchers are gene-hacking plants to make them gigantic. The idea is that it could vastly increase food yields for farmers."
date: "2019-01-03"
modified: "2019-01-03"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-gene-hacking-plants"
categories:
  - "Cybersecurity"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Hacking"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "agriculture"
  - "genetic engineering"
  - "the digest"
  - "usda"
---

# Scientists Are Gene-Hacking Plants to Make Them Enormous

![Researchers are gene-hacking plants to make them gigantic. The idea is that it could vastly increase food yields for farmers.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/scientists-gene-hacking-plants.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: RIPE\</em\>*

## Giant Beanstalk

In agriculture, scientists have used [genetic engineering](<https://futurism.com/science-gmo-food-evolution>) to create hardier and more nutritious crops for decades.

Now researchers are gene-hacking plants to make them gigantic — an area of research that could vastly increase food yields, [according to *MIT Technology Review*](<https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612710/gene-engineers-make-super-sized-plants-that-are-40-larger/>)*.*

## Swole Beans

A [new paper](<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6422/32>) in the journal *Science* describes work by researchers at the University of Illinois and the Department of Agriculture. They added new DNA instructions to tobacco plants in order to coax them to grow larger in response to light — changes, according to the paper, that led to yield increases of up to 40 percent.

"I was skeptical the entire way, but you can really see the difference," Paul South, a USDA biochemist who worked on the project, said in an interview with *MIT Tech*.

## Future Food

The Illinois work on making plants bigger through gene-hacking has attracted the attention of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has contributed about $80 million to the research in hopes that it could improve global food security, according to *MIT Tech.*

The next step, the researchers say, is to make similar changes to the genetic code of other crops, including soybeans and cowbeans — though they caution that it could be decades before regulatory agencies clear the large plants for human consumption.

**READ MORE:** [Gene Engineers Make Super-Sized Plants That Are 40% Larger](<https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612710/gene-engineers-make-super-sized-plants-that-are-40-larger/>) \[*MIT Technology Review*\]

***More on agriculture:*** [*Climate Change and Gene Editing Are Spurring a Tech Boom in Agriculture*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/agriculture-high-tech-investment>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)