Climate warming can increase plant growth in permafrost regions by lengthening the growing season, speeding up plant ...

Nitrogen is vital for all known life. Yet most nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere as di-nitrogen gas, which many organisms can’t use. Fortunately, there are microbes that can tap into this ...

A new research initiative led by associate professor of bacteriology Betül Kaçar is positioned to transform agriculture and address some of the world’s most pressing ecological and economic challenges ...

The marine nitrogen cycle is crucial to sustaining ocean productivity, with biological nitrogen fixation representing a primary mechanism by which inert atmospheric nitrogen is converted into ...

Most organisms require nitrogen to produce biological molecules, such as nucleotides and amino acids, but until recently, only prokaryotes were known to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. “It’s a very ...

High levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide intensify climate change, but high carbon dioxide levels can also stimulate plant growth. Plant growth removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, partially ...

It has puzzled scientists for years whether and how bacteria, that live from dissolved organic matter in marine waters, can carry out N 2 fixation. It was assumed that the high levels of oxygen ...

Heterocyst differentiation constitutes a pivotal developmental process in filamentous cyanobacteria, allowing these organisms to sidestep the oxygen sensitivity of the nitrogenase enzyme. Under ...

A new evaluation of biological nitrogen fixation for inland and coastal waters concludes that these habitats are an overlooked but important source of fixation globally. Robinson Fulweiler and ...