Genetic modification could be used to make a sweetener found in licorice, and help halt desertification, say scientists in Japan. Researchers there have identified an enzyme with a key role in the biological manufacture of glycyrrhizin, a sweetener- up to 300 times more potent than sugar- from licorice root, which could enable industrial production of the ”natural” sweetener by genetically modified plants or microbes. [...] Licorice production is dependent on the collection of wild Glycyrrhiza plants, especially in China, and this has caused a decrease in licorice reserves and an increase in desertification where it is harvested.