Researchers uncover a seven-gene pathway enabling corn and rice to fix nitrogen directly from the air, eliminating fertilizer dependence.
The goal is to place genes into the crops’ mitochondria and chloroplasts, enabling them to generate sufficient energy to drive nitrogen fixation.USU biochemists Lance Seefeldt, left, and Zhi-Yong Yang develop a method that could simplify genetic transfer of nitrogen fixation to food crops.Researchers have developed a simpler pathway, involving a newly known minimum of seven genes that allow the plant cell to make the enzyme that can covert nitrogen gas from the air to fertilizer.
“We need nitrogen to survive, but we can’t take it in from the air,” says Seefeldt, professor and head of USU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Haber-Bosch process revolutionized the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to a form that allowed for the industrial-scale production of fertilizer a little over a century ago.
“This is a pretty cool piece of evidence. Essentially, these staple caloric crops—rice, corn, and potatoes—could have built-in fertilizer.” The possibility of freeing cereal crops from the need for added fertilizer is significant, Seefeldt says.
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