Ecuadorian bean plants rely on helpful bacteria to convert air nitrogen into plant food. A new study found diverse native bacteria groups, some more effective than common commercial products, adapting ...

Nitrogen is essential for all plants and animals, but despite being surrounded by it—the element constitutes 79% of air on earth—only a few bacteria can absorb it directly from the environment. All ...

Mariangela Hungria won the 2025 World Food Prize for her work on microbes that feed plants nitrogen, allowing farmers to ...

Plants have developed mechanisms to fight pathogenic bacterial infection, but in the beneficial symbiotic association, entry of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria is accepted. The legume-symbiotic rhizobia ...

Researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking discovery shedding light on the intricate play between legume plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Their study details the crucial role played by ...

My laboratory research has focused on the symbiotic association of nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium meliloti with its host plant alfalfa. The specific interaction of the bacteria with alfalfa root hairs ...

Scientists have found that competition between strains of beneficial bacteria in the soil degrades the service that the bacteria provide to their hosts. Plants form alliances with microbes in the soil ...