Engineering Rhizobacteria for Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Cereals

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An increasing global population puts a greater burden on food productivity and security. Newcrop varieties are being bred for greater yield and pest resistance, however they still requirefertilisation to supply nitrogen which is normally limited in the soil. Nitrogen fixing bacteria inthe soil provide an opportunity to reduce the dependency of agriculture on in-organic fertiliserproduced by industry, which pollute ground water and release the potent greenhouse gas N2O.However, biological nitrogen fixation is currently mainly limited to legumes which requirecomplex two-way signalling and physiological changes to establish symbiosis with nitrogen fixingrhizobia. The traits required for colonisation by rhizobia are poorly understood and thereforedifficult to extend to cereal crops. Our aim is to use cereal endophytes, such as the versatilenitrogen fixer Azorhizobium caulinodans, as a chassis to engineer and enhance biologicalnitrogen fixation and ammonia release to the host in cereals. A synthetic orthogonal transkingdom signal will be used to establish a plant-microbe interaction between cereals andrhizobacteria and control nitrogen fixation and other plant growth promoting traits inengineered microbes.