PubMed · 2026-05-23
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.
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.
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.
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.