Some feather mosses, for example, fold the tips of their leaves, providing an insulated environment for nitrogen-fixing bacteria to grow. There are aquatic ferns with secret, inner chambers full of ...

Bacteria are only the only organisms that are able to 'fix' nitrogen, or remove it from the atmosphere and convert it into a useful form. While some plants seem to fix nitrogen, it is actually ...

Researchers have discovered peptide factors that function in the shoot and root systems to transport iron into the root nodules colonized by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Moreover, these peptide factors ...

Modern biology textbooks assert that only bacteria can take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form that is usable for life. Plants that fix nitrogen, such as legumes, do so by ...

Researchers are one step closer to understanding how some plants survive without nitrogen. Their work could eventually reduce the need for artificial fertilizer in crops such as wheat, maize, or rice.

If corn was ever jealous of soybean's relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, advancements in gene editing could one day even the playing field. A recent study shows that gene-edited bacteria can ...

A tiny protein tweak may unlock nitrogen-fixing super-crops that slash global fertilizer demand. Scientists discovered a small protein region that determines whether plants reject or welcome ...

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, but the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture is not sustainable. In a review article publishing in the journal Trends in ...

So, nitrogen-fixing bacteria have the added task of keeping oxygen away from the enzyme to prevent it from rusting, which requires a lot of work. In one study on a type of cyanobacteria, researchers ...