Lifeboat Foundation

To harness the power of the sun and make sugars for energy storage, plants use photosynthesis. But some plants are more efficient at it than others. For the first time, researchers have identified a key step in the transformation between old-fashioned C3 photosynthesis and new and improved C4 photosynthesis — which could lead to the development of more efficient, more resilient “super crops,” SciTechDaily reports.

Scientists at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, collaborated with researchers at the University of Cambridge to make the breakthrough, charting the evolution of plants over millions of years.

While 95% of plants use C3 photosynthesis, SciTechDaily explained, a new group of plants evolved to use C4 photosynthesis around 30 million years ago.