Good question, the research we are doing on increasing the durability of wood is separate from the research on photosynthesis. The durability of wood largely has to do with the ratio of lignin to cellulose. Historically organizations focused on increasing growth rate for bioenergy have worked on changing that ration to create fast growing but less dense wood. That's different from what we are doing at Living Carbon. We don't expect to see increases in wood durability from photosynthesis-enhancement alone.

Biochemically our photosynthesis-enhancement strategy is a metabolic bypass pathway that reduces the energy that goes towards photorespiration allowing for more energy to go toward growth. When talking to investors I sometimes say it's like putting the plant into ketosis :) albeit that is not the perfect analog.

When it comes to improving the durability of wood, one of our approaches focuses on improving the ability of trees to accumulate and store metals in their lignin. Metals act as natural fungicides and slow the decomposition of trees. Other ideas include some of the world the Salk Institute has done on increasing Suberin production. Here's a paper that demonstrates how a doubling in nickel concentration in norwegian spruce led to slower decomposition: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09291...

The crazy thing here is that there is SO MUCH precedent from accumulation of metals by trees in nature. In certain parts of New Caledonia a tree called pycnandra acuminata thrives in ultramorph aka Nickel rich soil. It has up to 24% nickel sap concentration and can be tapped for nickel citrate actually.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45398434