Pee-yew! Is that the smell of…. greenhouse… GAS?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Fertilizer’s stink comes from nitrogen. When plants can’t get enough of this nutrient from the air, we help them.
But Tyler Coale and team from the University of California, Santa Cruz asked: “Could plants fertilize themselves?”
They looked at the algae B. bigelowii. It uses a bacteria called UCYN-A for “nitrogen fixation”— making atmospheric nitrogen usable.
Using X-rays, they observed both UCYN-A and algae cells dividing together. Additionally, half of UCYN-A’s proteins originated from B. bigelowii. This suggests the two entities merged to form a new part, a “nitroplast”—that helps plants self-fix nitrogen!
Less fertilizer, less greenhouse gas FARTS! Ah, the sweet smell of success.
Reference: Tyler H. Coale et al. Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga.Science384,217-222(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adk1075