Spruce is a moonshot aiming to use directed evolution and genetic editing (CRISPR-Cas-9) to modify trees to grow faster and in harder conditions to combat deforestation - our first major target is the Amazon Rainforest.

Deforestation has overwhelmed many once beautiful areas and national treasures - such as the Amazon Rainforest. This permanently destroys ecosystems, as the soil never regenerates enough nutrients to sustain normal trees. Deforestation also robs the planet of the natural carbon consumption of trees. For every 10 years of deforestation, 201 gigatons of carbon emissions are released into the atmosphere.

Since the soil has very little nutrients, normal trees are unable to grow in it. However, we believe we can make sequential edits to the genome of a tree to allow it to thrive without the same nutritional requirements. Additionally, to jumpstart the process of bringing back the ecosystem, we believe we can reach the full height of a tree 6-10x faster using genetic edits.

Directed evolution, traditionally, is the process of monitoring a species’ natural random evolution and selecting a variant from it.

In essence, a company in directed evolution would watch the species evolve on its own, monitoring it until a certain mutation or genetic variant is observed that the company finds desirable. From there, they select that variant and begin breeding it to further improve it or to purpose it.

All directed evolution experiments begin with a parent protein/gene and an engineering goal.

However, traditional directed evolution is very time-consuming as, typically, ≈30–50% of random mutations are strongly deleterious, 50–70% are approximately neutral, and perhaps 0.5–0.01% are beneficial.

Using CRISPR effectively bypasses the process behind screening constant batches of proteins for a desired evolution - rather being able to target the gene specifically. From there, all that needs to be done is to make sure that there aren’t any off-target effects from the edit done to the genome.

In a study conducted at the University of Maryland, they found that CRISPR could be used to not only accelerate the directed evolution process but to introduce more direct and targeted changes to the genome. Once the species has been edited, the species is analyzed and bred. In doing so, all the offspring of that species will carry that specific mutation, essentially introducing evolution into the family tree of the species. A research team well-known for using this process is the Saudi research team from the Desert Agriculture Project. This was a university-led team working on using CRISPR and directed evolution to make rice and other food immune to herboxidiene - a herbicide known to inhibit plant growth.

So far, CRISPR-enabled directed evolution has only been used to make plants resilient to certain diseases. This is because genome analysis has not progressed to a point where we know which genes specifically affect parts of a plant’s function. We’re the first company in this industry to use this process to change the growth speed and nutrient intake of trees. Our editing process is proprietary, using a custom-fitted AI model to simulate genetic edits.

In short, no. We have two companies shortlisted that we believe partnering with accelerate our growth and be useful to our project - PlantEdit and Sherlock Biosciences.

Plant Edit is an Ireland-based CRISPR startup company aiming to produce “DNA-free” non-transgenic sustainable plant products in an attempt to introduce genome editing to food supply enhancement in a regulatory-free manner. The company focuses on creating modified plants that do not contain any foreign genetic material with a goal to meet the ever-increasing demand for “designer” crops while circumventing both the general aversion to ingesting non-plant-based DNA or RNA and the regulatory fences around traditional “GMO.”

They’ve also created a CRISPR-Cas9-modified soybean with a high oil content named SOlive. This oil is similar to olive oil, but can be used to fry food products at higher temperatures and store fried products for longer periods of time. The company is currently also developing enhanced fruit products and turf grass with the hopes of generating next-generation sustainable foods. Their expertise would be extremely useful in helping us edit the genome of the trees, having had industry experience with CRISPR.

Biology company dedicated to making diagnostic testing better, faster, and more affordable. This company has been using engineered tools of biology like CRISPR and Synthetic Biology to create molecular diagnostics, which can rapidly deliver accurate and inexpensive results for a vast range of needs in virtually any setting. And it uses SHERLOCK (Specific High-sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter unLOCKing) technology to detect genetic fingerprints across multiple organisms or sample types.

It is also looking to develop INSPECTR (Internal Splint-Pairing Expression Cassette Translation Reaction), a Synthetic Biology-based molecular diagnostics. Thus, this would open a wide range of potential applications in areas including oncology, infection identification, at-home testing, and disease detection in the field. Their genetic fingerprinting technology and rapid genome analysis tools will be incredibly advantageous in our editing process.

Rainforests are the hardest ecosystems to revitalize after being deforested. This is because their ecosystem is always in a very sensitive balance. When all the trees are removed, the soil erodes. When soil erodes, it becomes unsustainable for normal trees to plant and regrow in it for a multitude of reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is the lack of nutritional value in the soil, therefore the tree simply can’t sustain itself in that harsh condition. The Amazon Rainforest has been deforested to a great degree and alone it is responsible for a tremendous 6% of the world’s oxygen.

Tree genome sequencing hasn’t been explored much, with only 25 species from 4 of 100 families of trees being fully genomically sequenced. Also, CRISPR for Directed Evolution has hardly been explored beyond surface level. We believe that, with tree genome sequencing projects, an increase in CRISPR research, and simpler rapid genome sequencing tools, our idea will become feasible within the next 5-8 years.