Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes
Access to fixed or available forms of nitrogen limits the productivity of crop plants and thus food production. Nitrogenous fertilizer production currently represents a significant expense for the efficient growth of various crops in the developed world. There are significant potential gains to be h...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Society for Microbiology
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107493 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0844-4776 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9463-3508 |
| _version_ | 1826217599889833984 |
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| author | Mus, Florence Crook, Matthew B. Garcia, Kevin Garcia Costas, Amaya Geddes, Barney A. Kouri, Evangelia D. Paramasivan, Ponraj Ryu, Min-Hyung Oldroyd, Giles E. D. Poole, Philip S. Udvardi, Michael K. Voigt, Christopher A. Ané, Jean-Michel Peters, John W. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering Mus, Florence Crook, Matthew B. Garcia, Kevin Garcia Costas, Amaya Geddes, Barney A. Kouri, Evangelia D. Paramasivan, Ponraj Ryu, Min-Hyung Oldroyd, Giles E. D. Poole, Philip S. Udvardi, Michael K. Voigt, Christopher A. Ané, Jean-Michel Peters, John W. |
| author_sort | Mus, Florence |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Access to fixed or available forms of nitrogen limits the productivity of crop plants and thus food production. Nitrogenous fertilizer production currently represents a significant expense for the efficient growth of various crops in the developed world. There are significant potential gains to be had from reducing dependence on nitrogenous fertilizers in agriculture in the developed world and in developing countries, and there is significant interest in research on biological nitrogen fixation and prospects for increasing its importance in an agricultural setting. Biological nitrogen fixation is the conversion of atmospheric N2 to NH3, a form that can be used by plants. However, the process is restricted to bacteria and archaea and does not occur in eukaryotes. Symbiotic nitrogen fixation is part of a mutualistic relationship in which plants provide a niche and fixed carbon to bacteria in exchange for fixed nitrogen. This process is restricted mainly to legumes in agricultural systems, and there is considerable interest in exploring whether similar symbioses can be developed in nonlegumes, which produce the bulk of human food. We are at a juncture at which the fundamental understanding of biological nitrogen fixation has matured to a level that we can think about engineering symbiotic relationships using synthetic biology approaches. This minireview highlights the fundamental advances in our understanding of biological nitrogen fixation in the context of a blueprint for expanding symbiotic nitrogen fixation to a greater diversity of crop plants through synthetic biology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:06:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/107493 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:06:15Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1074932022-10-03T10:26:57Z Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes Mus, Florence Crook, Matthew B. Garcia, Kevin Garcia Costas, Amaya Geddes, Barney A. Kouri, Evangelia D. Paramasivan, Ponraj Ryu, Min-Hyung Oldroyd, Giles E. D. Poole, Philip S. Udvardi, Michael K. Voigt, Christopher A. Ané, Jean-Michel Peters, John W. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering Voigt, Christopher A. Ryu, Min-Hyung Access to fixed or available forms of nitrogen limits the productivity of crop plants and thus food production. Nitrogenous fertilizer production currently represents a significant expense for the efficient growth of various crops in the developed world. There are significant potential gains to be had from reducing dependence on nitrogenous fertilizers in agriculture in the developed world and in developing countries, and there is significant interest in research on biological nitrogen fixation and prospects for increasing its importance in an agricultural setting. Biological nitrogen fixation is the conversion of atmospheric N2 to NH3, a form that can be used by plants. However, the process is restricted to bacteria and archaea and does not occur in eukaryotes. Symbiotic nitrogen fixation is part of a mutualistic relationship in which plants provide a niche and fixed carbon to bacteria in exchange for fixed nitrogen. This process is restricted mainly to legumes in agricultural systems, and there is considerable interest in exploring whether similar symbioses can be developed in nonlegumes, which produce the bulk of human food. We are at a juncture at which the fundamental understanding of biological nitrogen fixation has matured to a level that we can think about engineering symbiotic relationships using synthetic biology approaches. This minireview highlights the fundamental advances in our understanding of biological nitrogen fixation in the context of a blueprint for expanding symbiotic nitrogen fixation to a greater diversity of crop plants through synthetic biology. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Great Britain) (Grants BB/L011484/1 and BB/L011476/1) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1331098) 2017-03-20T15:05:59Z 2017-03-20T15:05:59Z 2016-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0099-2240 1098-5336 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107493 Mus, Florence et al. “Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes.” Ed. R. M. Kelly. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 82.13 (2016): 3698–3710. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0844-4776 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9463-3508 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.01055-16 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf American Society for Microbiology American Society for Microbiology |
| spellingShingle | Mus, Florence Crook, Matthew B. Garcia, Kevin Garcia Costas, Amaya Geddes, Barney A. Kouri, Evangelia D. Paramasivan, Ponraj Ryu, Min-Hyung Oldroyd, Giles E. D. Poole, Philip S. Udvardi, Michael K. Voigt, Christopher A. Ané, Jean-Michel Peters, John W. Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes |
| title | Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes |
| title_full | Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes |
| title_fullStr | Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes |
| title_short | Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes |
| title_sort | symbiotic nitrogen fixation and the challenges to its extension to nonlegumes |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107493 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0844-4776 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9463-3508 |
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