Salk Institute moves deeper-rooted crop research from lab discovery to field testing

• Highlights
• The Bezos Earth Fund is granting $18 million for ROOTS, a three-year Salk project to test deeper-rooted, more resilient crops that can store more carbon in soil
• The project builds on six years of work through Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative, which has identified 347 gene candidates and advanced 37 projects across genes and crops
• The grant brings the Bezos Earth Fund’s total support for Salk to $48 million

LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute has received an $18 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund to test whether deeper-rooted soybeans can store more carbon in soil and better withstand drought and disease in field conditions. The three-year project, called ROOTS, moves Salk’s climate-focused crop research into a new proof-of-concept phase. Scientists will use artificial intelligence (AI), field trials, soil carbon studies, and plant-microbe science to develop and test soybean plants with deeper, stronger roots.