Project Description
Cereals are among the most important crops worldwide and nitrogen is the most-limiting nutrient for cereal growth thus necessitating the extensive use of unsustainable chemical fertilizers. In contrast, legumes form symbiotic association with rhizobia to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Legume-nodulating rhizobial strains have been isolated from cereals. These observations have led to a renewed interest in engineering nitrogen fixation in cereals. Rice is an excellent model for systems biology of cereals and has been a major target for nitrogen fixation in recent decades. We have earlier identified a rice growth promoting Rhizobium sp. IRBG74 and shown that this bacterium is a rice endophyte (can colonize internal tissues of rice roots and stems). This project is aimed at determining the genetic/physiological basis of rice colonization by IRBG74.