It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Increased soil salinity alters global inorganic carbon storage
A new global study shows that increasing soil salinity is systematically reshaping the storage and distribution of soil inorganic carbon (SIC), a key but often-overlooked part of terrestrial ecosystems. The findings, published in PNAS on January 20, provide the first comprehensive global assessment of how soil salinization influences inorganic carbon storage and highlight its implications for the global carbon cycle.
Led by Prof. XUE Xian from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the study integrated 94,515 soil profile samples from depths of 0 to 200 cm with land-use, climate, geomorphological, and soil-type information. The researchers then combined these data with machine learning-based spatial modeling.
The researchers found that regions with elevated soil salinity—primarily arid and semi-arid areas in Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa, western North America, and parts of South America—also host disproportionately large inorganic carbon stocks. At the global scale, soil electrical conductivity (EC), a standard salinity indicator, consistently correlates positively with SIC in surface and shallow soil layers (0–40 cm) across most environmental settings.
The researchers discovered that previously reported weak global correlations between salinity, as described by EC, and SIC were caused by grouping environmentally dissimilar regions together. When soils were analyzed using subregional classification, the correlation became significantly stronger.
However, this positive association is not unlimited. In many land-use types, including grasslands, bare lands, and some croplands, rising salinity was associated with higher inorganic carbon storage, provided that leaching remained limited. When EC increases beyond a moderate level (approximately 4 dS/m) or is found in deeper soil layers below 40 cm, though, the relationship between salinity and inorganic carbon weakens and can even reverse in some regions. These patterns indicate that under high-salinity and alkaline conditions, changes in ionic composition, pH, and increased water transport can affect the long-term stability of the inorganic carbon pool.
Using future climate scenarios, the researchers also showed that the impact of salinization on inorganic carbon storage varies across different patterns of human development, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions. For example, under high-emission scenarios, increasing salinity may promote short-term inorganic carbon accumulation in certain regions. Nevertheless, this effect is likely to be offset by soil acidification and intensified human disturbance, raising the risk of inorganic carbon loss.
"Our results show that soil salinization does not lead to a simple linear increase in inorganic carbon storage," said XUE. "Instead, it largely depends on salinity levels, soil depth, and environmental context. Recognizing these limiting factors is crucial for accurately assessing the role of saline soils in the global carbon cycle."
This study systematically reveals a conditional, threshold-dependent relationship between soil salinization and inorganic carbon on a global scale, filling a long-standing gap in understanding SIC and its driving mechanisms in global carbon cycle research. The findings provide new constraints for global carbon assessments and underscore the need to incorporate soil chemical processes into land degradation assessments and carbon neutrality strategies.
The contribution of increased global soil salinity to changes in inorganic carbon
Article Publication Date
21-Jan-2026
A new dataset exposes biodiversity loss hidden in global staple food trade
Pensoft Publishers
image: Global biodiversity loss embodied in staple food trade (1995–2022) view more
Credit: Dr Zhuofan Huang and Dr Zhenglei He
Global food trade is essential for food security but its ecological consequences often remain unseen. A new data paper published in One Ecosystem introduces a global long-term dataset, quantifying biodiversity loss embodied in the international trade of staple food crops. As such, this dataset offers a novel perspective on how food trade redistributes environmental pressures worldwide.
Developed by Dr Zhuofan Huang and Dr Zhenglei He, the dataset spans 1995–2022 and focuses on four major staple crops: wheat, soybean, rice and maize. By integrating bilateral trade data from UN Comtrade with agricultural production statistics from FAOSTAT and biodiversity loss intensity factors expressed as the Potential Disappeared Fraction (PDF), the dataset translates food trade flows into quantifiable biodiversity loss transfers between countries.
The resulting global network includes 157 countries and up to 91,414 trade relationships, capturing the dynamic evolution of biodiversity loss embedded in staple food trade over nearly three decades. Unlike previous studies that examine agricultural biodiversity impacts at national or sectoral levels, this dataset explicitly maps how biodiversity loss is transferred across borders through international trade.
Initial analyses reveal a strong upward trend in biodiversity loss embodied in global staple food trade. Among the four crops, soybean trade shows the most rapid increase, with biodiversity loss rising more than sixfold from 1995 to 2022, and surpassing wheat as the dominant contributor in recent years. The findings also highlight the central role of major agricultural producers and traders (including the United States, Brazil, China, Australia and Argentina) in shaping global biodiversity loss patterns.
The authors have openly released this dataset, therefore providing a valuable resource for interdisciplinary research and policy analysis. The data can support assessments of environmental responsibility in food supply chains, help identify high-risk trade pathways, and inform the development of more sustainable and equitable global food trade policies – these factors will in turn contribute to biodiversity conservation and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 15 (Life on Land).
Major trade pathways transferring biodiversity loss in global staple food trade between 1995-2022
Professor Dr. Carsten Streb (l.) and Dr. Soressa Abera Chala of the Department of Chemistry at JGU who developed the new electrolysis technique with which formate and hydrogen can be obtained from glycerol
Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a method which gives access to the valuable raw materials formate and hydrogen from the waste product glycerol. Formates are the salts of formic acid and are widely used in the chemical industry, while hydrogen can serve, for example, as an energy carrier to power vehicles. The new method can be operated with sustainable electricity and does not produce CO2. The results of the research have been recently published by the team in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. Professor Carsten Streb of JGU's Department of Chemistry, who supervised the study, pointed out: "The approach we have devised could make a significant contribution to the electrification of the chemical industry. This is a major driver for large-scale commercial developments to reduce industrial CO2 emissions. Processes which currently require considerable amounts of petroleum or natural gas could in future be operated using sustainable electricity."
CO2-neutral production of formate
The new process is based on the established method of water electrolysis. This involves the use of electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Employing so-called hybrid electrolysis, the researchers used glycerol in addition to water as a source material; the former is created in large quantities as a byproduct of biodiesel production. The second product generated during electrolysis was thus the corresponding formate rather than oxygen. Formates are usually produced from petroleum, but the corresponding process is associated with the emission of large amounts of CO2. Streb added: "On the other hand, the electrochemical generation of formates from glycerol is CO2-neutral if it is undertaken using green electricity." In chemical terms, what the researchers have achieved by means of their electrolysis of glycerol is to break down the glycerol, which has a three-carbon atom backbone, to create a formate that contains just a single carbon atom.
New catalyst developed
The new process is based on an innovative catalyst developed by the researchers. On the molecular level, the catalyst combines in close vicinity the two metals copper and palladium. Streb revealed: "We have not only managed to create this catalyst, but already have a very good idea what the material does and how we can optimize its operation." Theoretical and experimental insights into this were provided by a cooperating team at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
Subsequently, the team headed by Streb plans to investigate whether it is possible to replace the expensive noble metal palladium in the catalyst with earth-abundant metals. The team also targets the development of a new method to convert formate into methanol – the demand for methanol is substantially greater than that for formate. This may prove possible by means of the introduction of a second reductive electrolysis process.
Developments in the SusInnoScience Top-level Research Area
The research performed at JGU was undertaken in the context of the Top-level Research Area SusInnoScience (Sustainable chemistry as the key to innovation in resource-efficient science in the Anthropocene), the purpose of which is to develop sustainable chemical and biotechnological production processes. This Top-level Research Area at JGU is funded through the Research Initiative of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. The corresponding work was additionally a feature of the Sustainable Processes and Materials program of the Rhine-Main Universities (JGU, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Technical University of Darmstadt). It is also noteworthy that five of the postdocs involved were sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. "This is an international project that benefits considerably from the fact that we are able to recruit international talent through the Humboldt Foundation," concluded Streb.
Developing an efficient biosynthesis method, therefore, is a key step in making the production of this antitumor and antibacterial isoflavonoid efficient and sustainable.
While the Fabaceae plant family from which medicarpin is extracted is quite common and includes peas, alfalfa, acacia, and carob, the substance is in relatively low quantities within those plants. Furthermore, crops are susceptible to climate fluctuations and land use restrictions. Chemical synthesis is still a multi-step process beset by high production costs and environmental pollution concerns.
With a ready supply, medicarpin could become more widely used in the treatment of osteoporosis, inflammatory disease, and other indications.
As senior author Yongjun Wei, Chengwei Li, and colleagues at Zhengzhou University, the University of Nottingham, and Henan University of Technology, point out in a recent paper（DOI:10.1016/j.bidere.2026.100071 ）, “The biosynthesis of medicarpin in S. cerevisiae involves the coordination of multiple interconnected metabolic pathways, including glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), the shikimate pathway, and the isoflavonoid biosynthesis pathway.”
“Synthetic biology and microbial biomanufacturing represent a powerful, third paradigm for producing complex natural productions,” Wei tells GEN. “This platform has the potential to provide a reliable, scalable, environmentally friendly source of bioactive compounds…potentially overcoming supply chain and sustainability challenges associated with conventional methods.”
The team’s success hinged upon developing yeast strains adept at flavonoid synthesis. Ultimately, they engineered 26 strains of S. cerevisiae, overexpressing and mutating endogenous yeast genes that were vital for flavonoid synthesis, and creating a downstream flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in engineered yeasts.
Medicarpin production peaked at more than 157 μg/L in the GlaN26 strain. Optimization involved organelle engineering to knock out or knock down genes in competing pathways or with inhibitory transcription factors that would affect the targeted metabolic pathways, Wei, Li, and colleagues report.
Engineered S. cerevisiae has been used previously to generate a variety of natural products, such as cycloastragenol, which activates telomerase and has been associated with telomer elongation.
This method currently produces relatively small quantities of medicarpin, however. “The current titers remain orders of magnitude below commercially viable levels,” Wei says, and significant improvements in production efficiency and yield are essential before scale-up is feasible.”
“Our primary challenge lies in advancing the technology from a laboratory proof-of-concept to a robust industrial process,” Wei adds. “Further genetic and metabolic engineering of the yeast strains to drastically improve titer, yield, and rate under scaled fermentation conditions is necessary.”
BioDesign Research is dedicated to information exchange in the interdisciplinary field of biosystems design. Its unique mission is to pave the way towards the predictable de novo design and assessment of engineered or reengineered living organisms using rational or automated methods to address global challenges in health, agriculture, and the environment.
De novo biosynthesis of medicarpin in metabolically engineered yeast
New AI method revolutionizes the design of enzymes
Researchers at Graz University of Technology and the University of Graz can use the technology to construct artificial biocatalysts. These new enzymes are significantly faster, more stable and more versatile than previous artificial biocatalysts
Enzymes with specific functions are becoming increasingly important in industry, medicine and environmental protection. For example, they make it possible to synthesise chemicals in a more environmentally friendly way, produce active ingredients in a targeted manner or break down environmentally harmful substances. Researchers from Gustav Oberdorfer’s working group at the Institute of Biochemistry at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), together with colleagues from the University of Graz, have now published a study in the scientific journal Nature describing a new method for the design of customised enzymes. The technology called Riff-Diff (Rotamer Inverted Fragment Finder–Diffusion) makes it possible to accurately and efficiently build the protein structure specifically around the active centre instead of searching for a suitable structure from existing databases. The resulting enzymes are not only significantly more active than previous artificial enzymes, but also more stable.
Highly efficient biocatalysts
“Instead of putting the cart before the horse and searching databases to see which structure matches an active centre, we can now design enzymes for chemical reactions efficiently and precisely from scratch using a one-shot process,” says Gustav Oberdorfer, whose ERC project HELIXMOLD was a key basis for this breakthrough. Lead author Markus Braun from the Institute of Biochemistry at TU Graz adds: “The enzymes that can now be produced are highly efficient biocatalysts that can also be used in industrial environments thanks to their stability. This drastically reduces the screening and optimisation effort previously required and makes enzyme design more accessible to the wider biotechnology community.”
This progress was made possible by new developments in machine learning, which allow the design of much more complex structures than previous methods. Riff-Diff combines several generative machine learning models with atomistic modelling. First, structural motifs of proteins are placed around an active centre, then a generative AI model called RFdiffusion generates the complete protein molecule structure. The researchers refine this scaffold step by step using other models so that the chemically active elements are placed in it with high precision – precision at the angstrom level (1 angstrom corresponds to 0.1 nanometres) was achieved as proven by experimentally determined high-resolution protein structures.
Evolutionary short-cut
The team successfully confirmed how well the method works in the laboratory. Active enzymes for different reaction types have already been generated from 35 tested sequences. The new catalysts were significantly faster than previous computer-aided designs. In addition, the new enzymes showed high thermal stability and almost all retained their functional shape up to 90 degrees Celsius or more, which is particularly relevant for use in industrial applications. Lead author Adrian Tripp from the Institute of Biochemistry at TU Graz adds: “Although nature itself produces a large number of enzymes through evolution, this takes time. With our approach, we can massively accelerate this process and thus contribute to making industrial processes more sustainable, developing targeted enzyme therapies and keeping the environment cleaner.”
