How close are we to nitrogen-fixing cereals?
Summary of "How close are we to nitrogen-fixing cereals?"
Engineering nitrogen-fixing cereals is essential for sustainable food production for the projected global population of 9 billion people in 2050. This process will require engineering cereals for nodule organogenesis and infection by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The symbiosis signalling pathway is essential to establish both bacterial infection and nodule organogenesis in legumes and is also necessary for the establishment of mycorrhizal colonisation. Hence this signalling pathway is also present in cereals and it should be feasible to engineer this signalling pathway for cereal recognition of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. However, establishing a fully function nitrogen-fixing symbiosis in cereals will probably require additional genetic engineering for bacterial colonisation and nodule organogenesis.
Affiliation
Department of Disease and Stress Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.
Journal Details
This article was published in the following journal.
Name: Current opinion in plant biology
ISSN: 1879-0356
Pages:
Links
- PubMed Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20817544
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2010.08.003
Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
Plant Root Nodulation
The formation of a nitrogen-fixing cell mass on PLANT ROOTS following symbiotic infection by nitrogen-fixing bacteria such as RHIZOBIUM or FRANKIA.
Cyanobacteria
A phylum of oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria comprised of unicellular to multicellular bacteria possessing CHLOROPHYLL a and carrying out oxygenic PHOTOSYNTHESIS. Cyanobacteria are the only known organisms capable of fixing both CARBON DIOXIDE (in the presence of light) and NITROGEN. Cell morphology can include nitrogen-fixing heterocysts and/or resting cells called akinetes. Formerly called blue-green algae, cyanobacteria were traditionally treated as ALGAE.
Leghemoglobin
A hemoglobin-like oxygen-binding hemeprotein present in the nitrogen-fixing root nodules of leguminous plants. The red pigment has a molecular weight approximately 1/4 that of hemoglobin and has been suggested to act as an oxido-reduction catalyst in symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
Nostoc Muscorum
A form-species of nitrogen-fixing CYANOBACTERIA, in the family Nostocaceae, order Nostocales.
Gram-negative Aerobic Rods And Cocci
A group of gram-negative bacteria consisting of rod- and coccus-shaped cells. They are both aerobic (able to grow under an air atmosphere) and microaerophilic (grow better in low concentrations of oxygen) under nitrogen-fixing conditions but, when supplied with a source of fixed nitrogen, they grow as aerobes.
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