Researchers begin to uncover timeline of soybean’s nitrogen-fixing capability

In North Carolina, researchers at UNC – Charlotte, in analyzing the soy genome, say that two genetic shifts, 59 million and 13 million years ago, respectively, created the “unique adaptation of root nodules that house nitrogen-fixing bacteria.”

The study of the genetics of nitrogen-fixation — and the potential that the traits could be developed within or shared with other species, is an area of intense interest for biofuel cultivation, which typically requires the application of (fossil fuel based) nitrogen as a precursor to enhanced yields and has been a subject of controversy in the US Gulf Basin where nitrogen run-off is identified as a cause of the Gulf’s low-oxygen “death zone” which has severely impacted the habitat.

Researchers begin to uncover timeline of soybean’s nitrogen-fixing capability is a post from: Biofuels Digest