New tech enables crops to take nitrogen from the air

[EdEarl]

 

A major new technology has been developed by The University of Nottingham, which enables all of the world's crops to take nitrogen from the air rather than expensive and environmentally damaging fertilizers.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-07-world-technology-enables-crops-nitrogen.html#jCp

A major new technology has been developed by The University of Nottingham, which enables all of the world's crops to take nitrogen from the air rather than expensive and environmentally damaging fertilisers.

 

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-07-world-technology-enables-crops-nitrogen.html#jCp

 

Once the patents expire, this technology may help many poor people.

[CharonY]

Unfortunately I am unable to find any original papers (patent issues?) as the article is a bit strange. As mentioned, nitrogen fixation is nothing new per se, legume symbiosis is known very well and has been used in one for or another for a long time (e.g. crop rotation).

That being said the biggest claim here is that they report a method that allows nitrogen fixation in all major crops. That would be very big news since nitrogen-fixing symbiosis is only found in a few non-legumes and we do not even know all the mechanisms yet. Transferring effective nitrogen fixation to non-legume crops have always been the holy grail of nitrogen fixation research and I am really surprised that there is now a claim for a major breakthrough with almost no paper trail.

I really wonder how much of it is usual journalistic exaggeration and how much is true. E.g. if the method is really "just" an improved way to induce symbiosis or increase the efficiency of the symbiosis (both of which are would be pretty interesting, too).

[EdEarl]

I do not know of a patent, just assumed there would be one. I did find this reference.

 

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2013/july/world-changing-technology-enables-crops-to-take-nitrogen-from-the-air-.aspx

Edited July 27, 2013 by EdEarl

[overtone]

 

 

a unique method of putting nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots. His major breakthrough came when he found a specific strain of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in sugar-cane which he discovered could intracellularly colonise all major crop plants

Another word for "intracellularly colonize" is "infect". This sounds like a bacterial disease, or at best commensal, of sugar cane, with which other normally resistant plants can be inoculated via some unspecified manipulations ("coating the seed" doesn't quite satisfy my curiosity).

 

There will be difficulties in overcoming the immune systems of the various plants, and a cost to the plants and the farmers of supporting the infection throghout (legumes have good reason to isolate their symbiotic little helpers in root attachments).

 

But of course it's worth pursuing - big problems like N supply can accept compromise solutions. Corn is a high sugar grass, like sugar cane - this sounds really interesing.

[CharonY]

Symbiosis and parasitism are very similar in many ways. Both need to overcome host defense responses (plant defenses are generally not considered immune system, as they are functionally very different). But it is more just an infection, in root nodules (formed by the plants) they create a low-oxygen environment for the bacteria. who start differentiating into a nitrogen fixing form (bacteroid). Subsequently there is an extensive nutrient exchange between host and symbiont, which involves a very complicated interplay. The claim that this was successfully transferred between non-host systems is very bold (and amazing, if true).

[overtone]

But it is more just an infection, in root nodules (formed by the plants) they create a low-oxygen environment for the bacteria. who start differentiating into a nitrogen fixing form (bacteroid).

That's how legumes do it - by specific isolation of the bacteria away from the rest of the plant, both manipulating and limiting the bacteria's behavior.

 

That differs significantly from this:

 

His major breakthrough came when he found a specific strain of nitrogen fixing bacteria in sugar cane which he found could intracellularly colonize all major crop plants. This groundbreaking development potentially provides every cell tin the plant with the ability fo fix atmospheric nitrogen.

 

from wiki:

 

Unlike legumes and other nitrogen-fixing plants that form root nodules in the soil in association with bacteria, G. diazotrophicus lives within the intercellular spaces of the sugarcane's stem

 

He's not creating a legume type setup, but an intracellular version of sugar cane's intercellular bacterial commensals or symbionts or whatever they are. (If we can trust the writer of the article to know the difference between intra and inter). That's an infection of the whole plant, apparently - or at least the stems of all the grass crops. (Most human crops are annual grasses planted as seeds - unlike sugar cane, a perennial normally spread by cuttings, they will need inoculation every year).

Edited July 29, 2013 by overtone

[CharonY]

Hm, I kind of missed that it is about non-rhizobial diazotrophic bacteria. That is slightly somewhat less exciting as to my (potentially outdated) knowledge the fixation rate is far lower (probably due to more limited nutrient exchange and unfavorable pO2 levels). I remember faintly that there was quite a discussion whether some of the observed yield increase were really due to nitrogen fixation or an enhanced ability to take up nutrients from soil in presence of bacteria. In any case the results were significant, but the effect size was not huge, especially compared to rhizobia.

 

Getting these endophytes in a way that they immediately colonize the plant is probably a clever thing as they tend to get outcompeted so easily from root surfaces and soil, but I assume there will still be quite a significant need of other forms of fertilization.

 

I would be somewhat surprised if the reduction in fertilizer would be huge.

Edited July 29, 2013 by CharonY