Plants face severe extinction risks from habitat loss, climate change, and human activity — but new gene-editing tools and preserved DNA from museum collections may allow scientists to bring recently lost plant species back to life.
1
Plants face extinction from the same drivers as animals (habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, disease, overharvesting), but human-altered landscapes make climate-driven range shifts especially difficult for plants.
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De-extinction of plants is already technically feasible using CRISPR gene editing and DNA extracted from herbarium specimens, particularly for species with living close relatives.
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The authors focus ethical discussion on species driven extinct by human activity within the past few hundred years, implying a prioritization framework for de-extinction candidates.
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