Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and the Challenges to Its Extension to Nonlegumes

• Florence Mus ^[1] ; Matthew B. Crook ^[4] ; Kevin Garcia ^[4] ; Amaya Garcia Costas ^[1] ; Barney A. Geddes ^[2] ; Evangelia D. Kouri ^[5] ; Ponraj Paramasivan ^[6] ; Min-Hyung Ryu ^[3] ; Giles E. D. Oldroyd ^[6] ; Philip S. Poole ^[2] ; Michael K. Udvardi ^[5] ; Christopher A. Voigt ^[3] ; Jean-Michel Ané ^[4] ; John W. Peters ^[1]
  1. [1] Montana State University

     Montana State University

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] University of Oxford

     University of Oxford

     Oxford District, Reino Unido

     
  3. [3] Massachusetts Institute of Technology

     Massachusetts Institute of Technology

     City of Cambridge, Estados Unidos

     
  4. [4] University of Wisconsin–Madison

     University of Wisconsin–Madison

     City of Madison, Estados Unidos

     
  5. [5] dPlant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA
  6. [6] eJohn Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom

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• Localización: Applied and Environmental Microbiology, ISSN 0099-2240, Vol. 82, Nº 13, 2016, págs. 3698-3710
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Access to fixed or available forms of nitrogen limits the productivity of crop plants and thus food production. Nitrogenous fertilizer production currently represents a significant expense for the efficient growth of various crops in the developed world. There are significant potential gains to be had from reducing dependence on nitrogenous fertilizers in agriculture in the developed world and in developing countries, and there is significant interest in research on biological nitrogen fixation and prospects for increasing its importance in an agricultural setting. Biological nitrogen fixation is the conversion of atmospheric N2 to NH3, a form that can be used by plants. However, the process is restricted to bacteria and archaea and does not occur in eukaryotes. Symbiotic nitrogen fixation is part of a mutualistic relationship in which plants provide a niche and fixed carbon to bacteria in exchange for fixed nitrogen. This process is restricted mainly to legumes in agricultural systems, and there is considerable interest in exploring whether similar symbioses can be developed in nonlegumes, which produce the bulk of human food. We are at a juncture at which the fundamental understanding of biological nitrogen fixation has matured to a level that we can think about engineering symbiotic relationships using synthetic biology approaches. This minireview highlights the fundamental advances in our understanding of biological nitrogen fixation in the context of a blueprint for expanding symbiotic nitrogen fixation to a greater diversity of crop plants through synthetic biology.