The biology of Ciceribacter spp. and their adaptations as biological chassis for engineered nitrogen fixation

为了克服不断增长的人口将给全球粮食生产系统带来的压力，需要以可持续的方式最大化作物产量。生产能够固定自身氮素的作物，最大限度地减少对化肥的需求，是农业的“圣杯”。由于只有豆类才能与根瘤细菌形成基于根瘤的共生，而且试图将根瘤状共生改造成谷类作物的巨大挑战，工程和利用与植物根形成密切联系的自由生活的固氮菌提供了一种可持续的化肥施用替代方案。两株环状芽孢杆菌。在大麦根的初步筛选中鉴定出，它们是作为生物底盘进行工程设计的潜在候选者，用于固氮和向谷类作物根系释放氮素。优先领域|可持续提高农业生产；合成生物学。

In order to overcome the pressures that an ever-increasing population will put on global food production systems, sustainable means of maximising crop outputs are required. Generating crops that can fix their own nitrogen, minimising the need for chemical fertiliser application, is a "holy grail" for agriculture. As only legumes can form nodule-based symbioses with rhizobial bacteria, and the immense challenges of trying to engineer nodule-like symbiosis into cereal crops, engineering and utilising free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria that form close associations with plant roots offers a sustainable alternative to fertiliser application. Two Ciceribacter spp. were identified in an initial screen from barley roots and are potential candidates for engineering as biological chassis for nitrogen fixation and release of nitrogen to cereal crop roots.Priority areas | Sustainably enhancing agricultural production; Synthetic biology.