Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, but the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture is not sustainable. A team of bacteriologists and plant scientists discuss the possibility of using genetic engineering to facilitate mutualistic relationships between plants and nitrogen-fixing microbes called 'diazotrophs.' These engineered associations would help crops acquire nitrogen from the air by mimicking the mutualisms between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
A new study reveals that a peptide produced by some legumes helps them control nitrogen-fixing bacteria by sequestering all available heme, an iron-containing molecule. This sends the bacteria into ...
Scientists discover the genetics inside legumes that control the production of an oxygen-carrying molecule, crucial to the plant's close relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The finding ... It was long assumed that cyanobacteria were mainly responsible for fixing nitrogen on early Earth, thus making nitrogen available to the biosphere. Researchers now show that purple sulfur bacteria ...
Scientists have long known that nodulation is important to plant health. Nodulation occurs when nodules, which form on the roots of plants , form a symbiotic relationship with ...
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