Nitrogen is essential for all plants and animals, but despite being surrounded by it—the element constitutes 79% of air on earth—only a few bacteria can absorb it directly from the environment. All ...

LSH1/LSH2 are required to make nodules an infectable and habitable organ for rhizobial bacteria: Confocal image of WT and lsh1/lsh2 roots 24 and 72 hpi with S. meliloti (n > 30 per genotype and time ...

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have uncovered a master transcriptional regulator that controls rhizobial symbiosis between plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. By identifying an amino acid motif ...

A root nodule on a legume tree where symbiotic bacteria fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form of nitrogen that the trees can use to grow. Legume trees are abundant in tropical forests and can ...

My laboratory research has focused on the symbiotic association of nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium meliloti with its host plant alfalfa. The specific interaction of the bacteria with alfalfa root hairs ...

Legumes thrive in low-nitrogen environments by partnering with rhizobia, soil bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium, a usable form for the plants. These beneficial bacteria are ...

Researchers demonstrate that the plant hormone gibberellin (GA) is essential for the formation and maturation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules in legumes and can also increase nodule size. Researchers ...

Nitrogen-fixing cereals? California researchers grew wheat that fixed its own nitrogen, but commercialized seed production is ...

Scientists have found that competition between strains of beneficial bacteria in the soil degrades the service that the bacteria provide to their hosts. Plants form alliances with microbes in the soil ...

Female bumblebees visiting flowers of Chamaecrista latistipula in the wild. The insect makes internal parts of the flower vibrate in order to extract protein-rich pollen grains, which it carries away ...