In a win for crucial cereal crops, researchers have developed a way to allow the plants to convert nitrogen gas from the air to fertilizer to help them grow, as reported by Interesting Engineering.
The method, which aims to place a series of a minimum of seven genes into the crops' mitochondria and chloroplasts, allows cereal crops, such as corn and rice, to achieve nitrogen fixation through sunlight without applying fertilizer.
Nearly 100 years ago, the Haber-Bosch process led to an enormous increase in global food production by revolutionizing the conversion of nitrogen in the atmosphere to a form that allowed for the production of fertilizer on an industrial scale.
However, despite the mass production of the product, IE explained that many areas, like sub-Saharan Africa, are still unable to get it due to a lack of infrastructure. This area, and others like it, have high food scarcity, an issue that is growing as extreme weather further threatens the crops they can grow.
Ironically, while the Haber-Bosch process has prevented mass starvation, it also has a large carbon footprint. While it allows crops to be mass produced, it also contributes to Earth's overheating, the effects of which are threatening staple products.
Utah State University biochemist Lance Seefeldt told the publication that almost 2% of the world's well of dirty energy is used to produce fertilizer. Not only does this harm the environment, but the fertilizer itself is also damaging, with toxic runoff wreaking havoc on water ecosystems.
To help highly struggling areas and the overall global food supply, which is at risk due to the effects of rising global temperatures, Seefeldt and USU Senior Scientist Zhi-Yong Yang have collaborated on a project with colleagues in Spain and the United States for the past five years to reengineer the biology of cereal crops.
At first, they narrowed the number of genes needed for nitrogen fixation to nine but were later surprised to find they could eliminate some they initially considered critical.
"The goal is to place genes into the crops' mitochondria and chloroplasts, enabling them to generate sufficient energy to drive nitrogen fixation," Yang told IE. "This is a pretty cool piece of evidence. Essentially, these staple caloric crops — rice, corn, and potatoes — could have built-in fertilizer."
"Piece by piece, we're learning what genes and what combination of genes are needed to achieve nitrogen fixation in different cells," Seefeldt said. "Instead of just one horn playing, we're trying to get the whole orchestra to play together."
Aside from providing a solution to end food scarcity in less-developed and less-accessible areas, by eliminating the need for toxic fertilizer for a large subset of crops, the process plays a major role in helping to clean up the food and agriculture industries. Reducing pollution from fertilizer further benefits human health.
The process brings out-of-this-world benefits, too. IE reported that Seefeldt and USU colleague Bruce Bugbee have collaborated on NASA-funded efforts to investigate how to sustain human life on long-duration space missions, including trips to Mars.
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