Rice, wheat and maize are major crop plants all over the world. Farmers use nitrogen-based fertilizers to increase the crop yield in order to maximize profit. These fertilizers are a major cause of water pollution. Some plants such as clover and beans are able to host nitrogen fixing bacteria in their roots which will provide them with sufficient nitrogen for healthy growth.
Giles Oldroyed, a plant expert at the John Innes Centre is using genetic engineering to try to incorporate the genes to recognise the nitrogen-fixing bacteria from the clovers to rice. 'We are currently transferring the genes from clover into rice, trying to get rice to recognise the nitrogen-fixing bacteria. We do not know whether recognising the bacteria will be enough to get the partnership going, but it is the first step to transferring nitrogen fixation into these crop plants,' says Oldroyed.
If plants are able to use nitrogen from the atmosphere for growth and development, the use of fertilizers can be cut down, bringing down with it the level of pollution. Higher crop yield will also mean more food source available for the ever-growing human population.
References: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/futurefoods/pro/proGM_fertilisersmore.asp
http://www.irri.org/science/abstracts/019.asp
Picture:
http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/archives/Plant-science-blog/Nov-15-2007.html
