{"id":88,"date":"2016-11-02T10:02:30","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T10:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/?p=88"},"modified":"2024-02-13T17:32:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T17:32:48","slug":"how-will-nano-technology-change-modern-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/how-will-nano-technology-change-modern-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover Magazine: The World Has a Fertilizer Problem. Bioengineered Corn Could Save Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#eae9e9;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-justify-content-center\" style=\"max-width:1216.8px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_2_3 2_3 fusion-flex-column\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div ><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-1 hover-type-zoomin\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bioengineered-Corn-Could-Save-Us.jpg\" class=\"fusion-lightbox\" data-rel=\"iLightbox[62e1b16ac24821ced34]\" data-title=\"Bioengineered Corn Could Save Us\" title=\"Bioengineered Corn Could Save Us\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Bioengineered Corn Could Save Us\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bioengineered-Corn-Could-Save-Us.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-833\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bioengineered-Corn-Could-Save-Us-200x150.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bioengineered-Corn-Could-Save-Us-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bioengineered-Corn-Could-Save-Us-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bioengineered-Corn-Could-Save-Us.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:66.666666666667% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 0px !important;padding-right : 0px !important;margin-right : 2.88%;padding-bottom : 0px !important;padding-left : 0px !important;margin-left : 2.88%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:75% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 2.56%;margin-left : 2.56%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}<\/style><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_2_3 2_3 fusion-flex-column\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;background-color:#ffffff;border-width: 0 0 8px 0;border-color:#25afb4;border-style:solid;padding: 50px 50px 50px 50px;\"><style type=\"text\/css\">@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-title.fusion-title-1{margin-top:0px!important; margin-right:0px!important;margin-bottom:31px!important;margin-left:0px!important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-title.fusion-title-1{margin-top:0px!important; margin-right:0px!important;margin-bottom:20px!important; margin-left:0px!important;}}<\/style><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-1 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-two\" style=\"font-size:25px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:31px;margin-left:0px;\"><h2 class=\"title-heading-left fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"margin:0;font-size:1em;letter-spacing:0px;--fontSize:25;line-height:1.3;\"><p><span style=\"font-family: 'Days One'; font-weight: 400;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\" data-fusion-google-font=\"Roboto Slab\" data-fusion-google-variant=\"400\">Multiple scientists are working to grow corn that can fertilize itself, bypassing the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers that can harm the environment.<br \/>\n<em>By Tracy Staedter<\/em><i> <\/i><\/span><\/p><\/h2><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p>In retrospect, a Wisconsin cornfield in mid-September 2018 wasn\u2019t exactly the best place for an academic seminar. It was hot. There were horseflies. The sun cast a glare on the white poster boards, and the metallic chunk-chunk-chunking of a nearby grain elevator made it difficult at times to hear the main speaker. He was Walter Goldstein, a soft-spoken man in his mid-60s who had invited about 30 researchers and farmers to this field to make a point: Corn could thrive with little to no nitrogen fertilizer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re using too much nitrogen,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cIt\u2019s polluting all of our water \u2026 It\u2019s polluting the Mississippi. It\u2019s just awful, and yet we need it in order to get the yields.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Goldstein, an agronomist and the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Mandaamin Institute in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, said he\u2019d been breeding corn under low-fertilizer conditions for decades. He asked one of his assistants to hold a poster board with a blown-up photo of rows of corn. \u201cCan you see the color differences here?\u201d Goldstein asked. On one side of the photo were the rows of corn he\u2019d bred, noticeably more vibrant and deeper green than the rows of commercial corn planted on the other side. This deep color indicated the plants were getting abundant nitrogen, a fundamental element they need to grow and make chlorophyll, the green pigment necessary for photosynthesis.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-2 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-2\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"390\" alt=\"Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth\" title=\"Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-is-an-essential-nutrient-for-plant-growth.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-822\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-is-an-essential-nutrient-for-plant-growth-200x120.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-is-an-essential-nutrient-for-plant-growth-400x240.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-is-an-essential-nutrient-for-plant-growth-600x360.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-is-an-essential-nutrient-for-plant-growth.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\"><p><em>Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth. The darker green color of the hybrid corn plants on the left shows they are getting more nitrogen than the commercial variety on the right. (Credit: Walter Goldstein\/Mandaamin Institute).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-3\"><p>Although commercial corn typically gets some nitrogen from decayed organic material in soil, it mainly gets it from fertilizer \u2014 either organic, such as manure, or inorganic, such as ammonia \u2014 spread by the farmer (See \u201cA Century of Ammonia,\u201d opposite page). Goldstein said he hadn\u2019t added fertilizer to his greener crops, though. Instead, he had cultivated varieties that would team up with microbes that process, or \u201cfix,\u201d nitrogen into a form usable by the plants.<\/p>\n<p>Goldstein\u2019s microscopic organisms came as a powder that he sprinkled in the soil when the seeds were sowed. These particular bacteria convert nitrogen gas in the air, which plants can\u2019t process, into nitrogen-rich ammonia, which they can. In return for the ammonia, plants provide the nitrogen-fixing bacteria with shelter and the sugary carbohydrates they need to survive.<\/p>\n<p>That the microbes enhanced the corn\u2019s vitality was somewhat of a surprise. For a long time, scientists thought these microorganisms only lived inside the nodules on the roots of legumes \u2014 members of the bean family, like soy, peas and alfalfa \u2014 not corn. Nodules give microbes a safe place to produce the enzyme nitrogenase, necessary for fixing nitrogen, while shielding them from oxygen, which can shut down the reaction.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-3 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-3\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"655\" alt=\"Nitrogen Fixing Nodules (Credit: Jay Smith)\" title=\"Nitrogen Fixing Nodules (Credit: Jay Smith)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-Fixing-Nodules.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-823\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-Fixing-Nodules-200x202.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-Fixing-Nodules-400x403.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-Fixing-Nodules-600x605.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Nitrogen-Fixing-Nodules.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-4\"><p><em>Nitrogen Fixing Nodules (Credit: Jay Smith)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-5\"><p>But over the years, research teams have found nitrogen-fixers living in the root nodules of other species, too, like red alder trees and certain tropical trees and shrubs. They\u2019ve also found them in the plant tissues of sugarcane and some trees. And last year, researchers published a report that an ancient corn variety in Mexico was harboring N-fixers, too. Though it once seemed impossible that plants without nodules could team up with bacteria to get this essential nutrient, it\u2019s become increasingly clear that that\u2019s not the case. Most importantly, it\u2019s not the case for corn, one of the planet\u2019s most nitrogen-hungry crops.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, scientists have been working to find a way to grow corn with less fertilizer. Some are using genetic engineering techniques to focus on the plant, others have been experimenting with microbes, and still others, like Goldstein, have been using classical breeding methods to tap into the plants\u2019 age-old ability to partner with the bacteria.<\/p>\n<p>What these scientists uncover could upend agriculture as we know it by reducing the global use of fertilizer \u2014 all while still producing the yields necessary to sustain our civilization.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-4 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-4\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"606\" height=\"773\" alt=\"A farmer in Iowa pours fertilizer into a corn planter in 1940. (Credit: Library of Congress\/John Vachon)\" title=\"A farmer in Iowa pours fertilizer into a corn planter in 1940. (Credit: Library of Congress\/John Vachon)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/century-of-ammonia.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-824\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/century-of-ammonia-200x255.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/century-of-ammonia-400x510.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/century-of-ammonia-600x765.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/century-of-ammonia.jpg 606w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 606px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-6\"><p><em>A farmer in Iowa pours fertilizer into a corn planter in 1940. (Credit: Library of Congress\/John Vachon)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-7\"><p>For centuries, growers relied on manure and crop rotation to keep soil fertile. But in 1908, German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch invented a way to transform nitrogen gas and hydrogen into a liquid chemical \u2014 ammonia \u2014 that could be sprayed onto soil to make it almost instantly fertile. Relatively cheap to produce and easily mixed with other nutrients like phosphorus, potassium and sulfur, this new way to fertilize sparked an agricultural revolution. Crop yields skyrocketed 30 percent to 50 percent. So did the world\u2019s population, which went from 1.65 billion in 1900 to 7.6 billion today.<\/p>\n<p>Fertilizer use comes at a cost, though. Manufacturing it produces 3 percent of the world\u2019s carbon emissions. Most commercial farmers in the U.S. apply between 160 and 220 pounds of mainly inorganic fertilizer per acre. Nearly a third to a half of that is lost to the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Rains can soak fertilizer into the soil, where it pollutes groundwater. Soil bacteria process ammonia from both inorganic and organic fertilizer and turn it into nitrous oxide, the third most significant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane. Washed into rivers, lakes and oceans, nitrogen increases the population of microscopic organisms. Toxic cyanobacteria poison fish and other aquatic animals. Blooms of algae decrease oxygen in the water. The decay from dead marine animals further consumes oxygen in the water, creating dead zones, like those in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Inorganic fertilizer has become an agricultural catch-22, polluting the world it feeds. Without it, yields would decline by 40 percent, putting millions of people at risk of starvation. But if corn \u2014 the most prevalent crop in the U.S. \u2014 could fix its own nitrogen, some estimates say fertilizer use on the crop could drop by 25 to 50 percent.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"sc-bdVaJa sc-htpNat sc-bxivhb sc-11lzyao-1 dqzjMt ijbjxt-0 jExetr\">Skip the Middleman<\/h2>\n<p>For nearly 20 years, a simple question has nagged Luis Rubio, an associate professor at the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics in Madrid, Spain. Why can\u2019t plants fix nitrogen on their own, without the help of microbes?<\/p>\n<p>He suspects it\u2019s because plants can\u2019t make the nitrogenase enzyme. \u201cHere comes a challenge: Let\u2019s make it possible,\u201d he says. For Rubio, that means moving the genetic instructions to produce nitrogenase from a bacterium into a corn cell.<\/p>\n<p>This involves a host of challenges. How bacteria make enzymes differs from how plant cells do it \u2014 enough that simply transferring genes won\u2019t work. On top of that, the instructions for the nitrogen-fixing reaction are complex, a puzzle of between\u00a010 and 20 different genes \u2014 and each needs to be assembled in precisely the right order for the overall system to work.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2012, Rubio and his colleagues have been using genetic engineering and computer science to overcome these obstacles. First, they search databases for genes from bacteria cells that might be able to perform a particular function, such as make one part of the nitrogenase enzyme.<\/p>\n<p>Once they pinpoint such a target, the scientists make a synthetic copy of the gene and insert it into yeast, which grows and multiplies quickly, to make other copies. Next, they extract the product of the gene \u2014 its protein \u2014 purify it, and check that it functions well. If it does, the gene is then combined with another gene that was analyzed the same way to see if the two work well together. If they do, that subgroup is combined with another subgroup and they\u2019re analyzed to see how well they function together. Over and over again, genes are copied and tested, first alone and then with others, slowly adding to the chain of genetic command.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-5 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-5\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"628\" alt=\"Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith\" title=\"Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith-200x193.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith-400x386.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith-600x580.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Genetic_Engineering_Infographic_Jay_Smith.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-8\"><p><em>(Credit: Jay Smith)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-9\"><p>So far, Rubio\u2019s team has gotten 15 of 20 genes to work well together, in three distinct subsets of just a few genes each. Recently, they started testing a string of working genes in rice, which is more complex than yeast. The crop is similar to corn, but easier to work with.<\/p>\n<p>Piecing together this scientific puzzle and putting it into corn may take another two decades, Rubio says. When the researchers succeed, they\u2019re aiming to get the engineered enzyme into a corn cell\u2019s mitochondria, where energy production naturally occurs; it will be shielded there from reaction-ruining oxygen. This bioengineered corn, if successful, would pull the nitrogen it needs right out of the air.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"sc-bdVaJa sc-htpNat sc-bxivhb sc-11lzyao-1 dqzjMt ijbjxt-0 jExetr\">The Root of the Matter<\/h2>\n<p>It was white. It was slimy. It was frustrating. For the umpteenth time that month, Sharon L. Doty, then a post-doctoral researcher in the biochemistry department at the University of Washington, peered into a glass petri dish at yet another small tree cutting contaminated by gobs of goo. Bacteria. It was mucking up her labwork. She sent the slime out to have its DNA sequenced, thinking that if she could identify the bacteria, she could kill it.<\/p>\n<p>But Doty was surprised to find that the slime was made of common soil bacteria called Rhizobium tropici, the kind that fixes nitrogen in the low-oxygen environment of legume root nodules. No one had ever found Rhizobia living inside the tissue of the stems, branches or leaves of trees outside of that plant family. Doty went on to discover several different kinds of these endophytes, or bacteria that live inside plant tissues, in other poplars and willow trees.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-6 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-6\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"622\" alt=\"A petri dish full of poplar tree cuttings covered in goo led to the discovery that nitrogen-fixing bacteria can exist inside plants other than legumes. (Credit: Sharon L. Doty)\" title=\"A petri dish full of poplar tree cuttings covered in goo led to the discovery that nitrogen-fixing bacteria can exist inside plants other than legumes. (Credit: Sharon L. Doty)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Petri-Dish-Poplar-Tree-Cuttings.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Petri-Dish-Poplar-Tree-Cuttings-200x191.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Petri-Dish-Poplar-Tree-Cuttings-400x383.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Petri-Dish-Poplar-Tree-Cuttings-600x574.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Petri-Dish-Poplar-Tree-Cuttings.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-10\"><p><em>A petri dish full of poplar tree cuttings covered in goo led to the discovery that nitrogen-fixing bacteria can exist inside plants other than legumes. (Credit: Sharon L. Doty)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-11\"><p>She spent the next 18 years trying to convince the scientific community that she\u2019d found endophytes that fix nitrogen. Many shrugged her off because the research went against the dogma that nitrogen-fixing microbes only lived in root nodules of specific plants. \u201cIt\u2019s only through my stubbornness that I kept pushing it and pushing it,\u201d says Doty.<\/p>\n<p>It paid off. In 2016, she published a report in PLOS One about the nitrogen-fixing endophytes she\u2019d found in poplars. By then, she\u2019d also exclusively licensed the microbes to the ag-biotech firm, Intrinsyx Bio, which is developing them as a microbial product for crops, called an inoculant.<\/p>\n<p>This year, distributor Unium Bioscience released the first commercial product based on Intrinsyx\u2019s formulation. Called Tiros, it\u2019s available in the United Kingdom as a liquid to apply as a seed coat, and the group is working on powder and small pellet forms that could be applied straight onto a field during sowing. As the seeds sprout, the microorganisms grow with the plant, and migrate into plant tissue through cracks at the junctions of branching roots or root hairs. Once inside, the endophytes fix nitrogen.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-7 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-7\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"456\" height=\"653\" alt=\"(credit: Jay Smith)\" title=\"Biofertilizers_Infographic_Jay_Smith\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Biofertilizers_Infographic_Jay_Smith.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-826\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Biofertilizers_Infographic_Jay_Smith-200x286.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Biofertilizers_Infographic_Jay_Smith-400x573.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Biofertilizers_Infographic_Jay_Smith.jpg 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 456px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-12\"><p><em>(credit: Jay Smith)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-13\"><p>In early tests conducted on corn fields in Iowa, growers who applied a typical amount of fertilizer plus Tiros got six additional bushels per acre (state average is 196.) More recent field trials that reduced fertilizer by up to a third also showed promising results, but Intrinsyx Bio CEO Ahsan Ali says that more tests are needed. In May 2019, the company received a grant to work with scientists at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center near St. Louis to test their microbes on 250 corn varieties, and, among other things, figure out how to get the highest yield with the smallest amount of nitrogen fertilizer.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"sc-bdVaJa sc-htpNat sc-bxivhb sc-11lzyao-1 dqzjMt ijbjxt-0 jExetr\">Start Small<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOne of the blessings in research is not getting funding,\u201d says Ted Cocking, a plant scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Nottingham.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, Cocking believed, as other scientists did, that nitrogen fixation could only occur in the root nodules of legumes. Trained in plant physiology, cell biology and bacteriology, he originally set out to breed corn that grows root nodules of its own, with the notion they would attract nitrogen-fixing bacteria already living in the soil.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-8 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-8\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"425\" alt=\"Ted Cocking (Credit: The University of Nottingham)\" title=\"Ted Cocking (Credit: The University of Nottingham)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Ted-Cocking-Credit-The-University-of-Nottingham.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-827\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Ted-Cocking-Credit-The-University-of-Nottingham-200x131.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Ted-Cocking-Credit-The-University-of-Nottingham-400x262.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Ted-Cocking-Credit-The-University-of-Nottingham-600x392.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Ted-Cocking-Credit-The-University-of-Nottingham.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-14\"><p><em>Ted Cocking (Credit: The University of Nottingham)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-15\"><p>He got the nodules to sprout, and the bacteria to move in \u2014 but only into dead tissue. The critical symbiosis with the living plant never formed. With his funds drying up, he realized he had to take a different approach. Instead of trying to get the bacteria to live in root nodules, he wondered if they could live inside the plants\u2019 root cells.<\/p>\n<p>His new proposal was approved, and the new funding allowed him to move forward. But he faced a double challenge. Cocking required a bacterium that could fix nitrogen, even in the presence of some oxygen, and make its way past a plant\u2019s tough cell wall. He eventually hit the jackpot with\u00a0<i>Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus,<\/i>a bacterium found in Brazilian sugarcane.<\/p>\n<p>He brought\u00a0<i>Gluconacetobacter<\/i>\u00a0into his lab and got the bacteria to break through. The plant cells then surrounded them with a thin membrane, in a natural process called endocytosis, to form little self-contained bubbles. The bacteria survived off sugars the plant made during photosynthesis, and tapped into the cell\u2019s own energy molecules \u2014 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) \u2014 as a power source for their nitrogen fixation. And Gluconacetobacter, unlike Rhizobia, can fix nitrogen even when there\u2019s a little oxygen around \u2014 like in a plant cell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have now, for the first time in the world, a plant with nitrogen-fixing bacteria [sitting] side by side, almost fused, with chloroplasts,\u201d says Cocking, referring to the structures inside plant cells responsible for photosynthesis. This close relationship between the bacteria and the chloroplasts allows them to directly swap the sugar, nitrogen and ATP that each need to do their job in the plant cell.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-9 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-9\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"624\" height=\"624\" alt=\"Ted Cocking worked with a strain of bacteria found in Brazilian sugarcane that led to the development of a commercial product called Envita. The widespread tiny black dots of bacteria in these corn cells show how they spread through the plant. (Credit: Azotic North America)\" title=\"Ted Cocking worked with a strain of bacteria found in Brazilian sugarcane that led to the development of a commercial product called Envita. The widespread tiny black dots of bacteria in these corn cells show how they spread through the plant. (Credit: Azotic North America)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bacteria-in-Corn-Cells.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-828\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bacteria-in-Corn-Cells-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bacteria-in-Corn-Cells-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bacteria-in-Corn-Cells-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Bacteria-in-Corn-Cells.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-16\"><p><em>Ted Cocking worked with a strain of bacteria found in Brazilian sugarcane that led to the development of a commercial product called Envita. The widespread tiny black dots of bacteria in these corn cells show how they spread through the plant. (Credit: Azotic North America).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-17\"><p>In 2012, the Lancashire, England-based company Azotic Technologies formed to develop an inoculant based on Cocking\u2019s science. Called Envita, the product began selling commercially this spring as a liquid applied with the seed when it\u2019s sowed. Nolan Berg, Azotic North America\u2019s president and general manager, says it will be added this year to more than 100,000 acres of cropland. In 2020, Azotic plans to break a million acres.<\/p>\n<p>In the U.S., farmers who used a normal amount of fertilizer plus Envita got up to a 20 percent boost in yield. Tests indicated they could reduce fertilizer as much as 27 percent and get the same yield as before. \u201cFarmers don\u2019t have to choose between productivity and sustainability,\u201d says Berg. \u201cThey can have both.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"sc-bdVaJa sc-htpNat sc-bxivhb sc-11lzyao-1 dqzjMt ijbjxt-0 jExetr\">Nature\u2019s Solution, Hiding in Plain Sight<\/h2>\n<p>In the montane forests of Sierra Mixe (pronounced MEE-hay), in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, grows a corn \u2014 or maize \u2014 with clear, gelatinous film oozing from fingerlike structures protruding from its stems.<\/p>\n<p>Here, in the birthplace of corn, indigenous peoples domesticated maize from the wild grass teosinte. Over millennia, the local farmers preferentially planted the corn that grew best at different altitudes and in fields that were sometimes poor in nutrients. In doing so, they produced a wide variety of plants with different ear sizes and kernel shapes, colors and textures. Today, these local cultivars, or landraces, are considered some of the oldest varieties of maize in the world.<\/p>\n<p>But there is something special about the varieties that produce gelatinous film. Starting in the 1990s, Mexican scientists began to study the goo and found that it harbored nitrogen-fixing bacteria. And last year, a team from the University of California, Davis, confirmed that the corn was indeed taking advantage of the nitrogen the bacteria produced. Plus, they discovered, the ancient teosinte from which corn descends had this ability all along.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-10 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-10\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"1156\" alt=\"The gelatinous goo oozing from these corn plants hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Discovered in the tropics of southern Mexico, these ancient varieties of maize are considered some of the oldest in the world. (Credit: Jean-Michel An\u00e9)\" title=\"The gelatinous goo oozing from these corn plants hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Discovered in the tropics of southern Mexico, these ancient varieties of maize are considered some of the oldest in the world. (Credit: Jean-Michel An\u00e9)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/N-fixing_corn_sierra_mixe.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-829\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/N-fixing_corn_sierra_mixe-200x356.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/N-fixing_corn_sierra_mixe-400x711.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/N-fixing_corn_sierra_mixe-600x1067.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/N-fixing_corn_sierra_mixe.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-18\"><p><em>The gelatinous goo oozing from these corn plants hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Discovered in the tropics of southern Mexico, these ancient varieties of maize are considered some of the oldest in the world. (Credit: Jean-Michel An\u00e9)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-11 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-11\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"867\" alt=\"The gelatinous goo oozing from these corn plants hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Discovered in the tropics of southern Mexico, these ancient varieties of maize are considered some of the oldest in the world. (Credit: Jean-Michel An\u00e9)\" title=\"The gelatinous goo oozing from these corn plants hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Discovered in the tropics of southern Mexico, these ancient varieties of maize are considered some of the oldest in the world. (Credit: Jean-Michel An\u00e9)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/n-fixing_corn_sierra_mix.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-830\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/n-fixing_corn_sierra_mix-200x267.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/n-fixing_corn_sierra_mix-400x534.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/n-fixing_corn_sierra_mix-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/n-fixing_corn_sierra_mix.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-19\"><p>By actively selecting maize varieties for their resilience, indigenous farmers in Sierra Mixe had inadvertently amplified the natural ability of their crop to partner with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Meanwhile, farmers and breeders elsewhere in the world accidentally did the opposite, fertilizing corn until it lost this natural ability. Now, it seems the secret to corn\u2019s future may lie in its ancient past. Researchers successfully planted the goopy corn in Wisconsin and continue to explore how to bring this ancient nitrogen fixation to commercial farms in the future.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"sc-bdVaJa sc-htpNat sc-bxivhb sc-11lzyao-1 dqzjMt ijbjxt-0 jExetr\">The Ears Have It<\/h2>\n<p>Back in the Wisconsin field in September, Goldstein held up an ear of corn. He told the crowd he had had the kernels of his greener plants analyzed, and that the data indicated the presence of nitrogen fixation.<\/p>\n<p>His classical corn breeding method involves crossing a broad range of cultivated varieties, including ancient landraces from Argentina, Peru and Mexico\u2019s Sierra Mixe. He grows the plants under stressful, nutrient-limited and sometimes waterlogged conditions, and then selects for ones that flourish, which is unlike contemporary methods that rely on selecting plants based on genetic analysis. To date, Goldstein has cultivated seven hybrid varieties that do very well without fertilizer, he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis breeding efforts are very interesting and very useful,\u201d says crop scientist Martin Bohn, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-12 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-12\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"608\" alt=\"Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit\" title=\"Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-831\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit-200x187.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit-400x374.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit-600x561.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Traditional_Plant_Breeding_Infographic_Jay_Smit.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-20\"><p><em>(Credit: Jay Smith)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-21\"><p>In 2018, Bohn and his team planted Goldstein\u2019s hybrids along with a handful of others in cornfields in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, as well as in greenhouses under more controlled conditions. He says Goldstein\u2019s hybrids, especially one in particular, consistently did well in soil with low, medium and high fertilizer, and even in the presence of weeds. Bohn thinks it has something to do with the roots, which are always large, well-developed and very dense. Roots from conventional plants tend to stay small in the presence of abundant nitrogen or grow large in nitrogen-deficient soil, he says. Normally, when plants use energy to grow larger roots, their yields can suffer. But Bohn says he didn\u2019t see this with Goldstein\u2019s best hybrid.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThis root system is not only structurally different \u2026 but it might be possible that these plants cultivate a microbial community that favors bacteria that fix nitrogen,\u201d says Bohn, who has long studied how root systems manage microbial communities to make nutrients more available to corn.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Goldstein only recently published his evidence on the presence of nitrogen fixation in some of his corn hybrids, and he has not analyzed the genetic makeup of the microbes. This dearth of published data rankles some scientists. One university research professor, who didn\u2019t want to be named, says Goldstein doesn\u2019t understand how nitrogen fixation works or how to measure it.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><div class=\"awb-image-frame awb-image-frame-13 imageframe-liftup\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-13\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" alt=\"Walter Goldstein (Credit: Alison Mackey\/Discover)\" title=\"Walter Goldstein (Credit: Alison Mackey\/Discover)\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Walter_Goldstein.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Walter_Goldstein-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Walter_Goldstein-400x266.jpg 400w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Walter_Goldstein-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Walter_Goldstein.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-22\"><p><em>Walter Goldstein (Credit: Alison Mackey\/Discover)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:40px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-23\"><p>But Abdullah Jaradat, a research agronomist at the USDA who has collaborated with Goldstein on grant-funded research, says Goldstein \u201clooks at the larger scale, which does not necessarily reflect the fine relationship between the plants and the microbiota, but an overall outcome of several physical, chemical, biochemical and environmental factors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jaradat doesn\u2019t think the approach has any flaws in a general sense, and says Goldstein brings value to research on maize because he has collected and crossbred many varieties, reshuffling genetic sources of corn using techniques that were once a mainstay of North American farming. In Jaradat\u2019s view, there is room for both the modern analytical approaches as well as the more traditional methods of breeding.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThere must be a hybrid between the old and the new,\u201d Jaradat says, \u201cto bring about a change to the current state of affairs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b><i>Tracy Staedter<\/i><\/b><i> is a science journalist based in Milwaukee who covers innovations in sustainability. This story originally appeared in print as &#8220;The Fix is In.&#8221;<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:66.666666666667% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 50px !important;padding-right : 50px !important;margin-right : 2.88%;padding-bottom : 50px !important;padding-left : 50px !important;margin-left : 2.88%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:75% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 2.56%;margin-left : 2.56%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:100% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}<\/style><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-1{ padding-top : 50px;margin-top : 0px;padding-right : 30px;padding-bottom : 90px;margin-bottom : 0px;padding-left : 30px;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-1{ padding-top : 80px;}}<\/style><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Multiple scientists are working to grow corn that can fertilize itself, bypassing the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers that can harm the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1490,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions\/1490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intrinsyxbio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}