“This is the first time that a plant has been created through genetic engineering to fix all of its carbon by a cyanobacterial enzyme,” Hanson says in a news release. “It is an important first step in creating plants with more efficient photosynthesis.” So how’d they succeed where others have failed? A broad-stroke approach, Hanson tells Popular Mechanics: Not only did they swap in the cyanobacterial genes, they also made several other genetic substitutions to include proteins for manufacturing the enzyme.