John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.
John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2014 Apr;26:19-24. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2013.08.006. Epub 2013 Sep 6.
The availability of nitrogen is one of the major limiting factors to crop growth. In the developed world, farmers use unsustainable levels of inorganic fertilisers to promote crop production. In contrast, in the developing world inorganic fertilisers are often not available and small-holder farmers suffer the resultant poor yields. Finding alternatives to inorganic fertilisers is critical for sustainable and secure food production. Bacteria and Archaea have evolved the capability to fix atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, a form readily usable in biological processes. This capability presents an opportunity to improve the nutrition of crop plants, through the introduction into cereal crops of either the nitrogen fixing bacteria or the nitrogenase enzyme responsible for nitrogen fixation. While both approaches are challenging, recent advances have laid the groundwork to initiate these biotechnological solutions to the nitrogen problem.
氮的可利用性是作物生长的主要限制因素之一。在发达国家，农民使用不可持续的无机肥料来促进作物生产。相比之下，在发展中国家，无机肥料往往不可用，小规模农户因此遭受产量下降的困扰。寻找无机肥料的替代品对于可持续和安全的粮食生产至关重要。细菌和古菌已经进化出将大气氮固定为氨的能力，氨是一种在生物过程中易于使用的形式。这种能力为通过向谷类作物中引入固氮细菌或负责固氮的氮酶来改善作物的营养提供了机会。虽然这两种方法都具有挑战性，但最近的进展为启动这些解决氮问题的生物技术解决方案奠定了基础。
