Re:Technology enables crops to take nitrogen from the air
by dnautics on Monday August 12, 2013 @06:27PM
(#6202595)
are you sure those bacteria can get into those cells or are the just hanging out interstitially? Plant cell walls are tough. Certainly, phytoplasma do it, so it's not impossible... But it may require some sort of plant-cell symbiotic communication which many not necessarily be evolved in the plants you want to use it, especially if at the moment the bacterium is semi-opportunistic.
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Re:Technology enables crops to take nitrogen from the air
by Blahah on Monday August 12, 2013 @07:24PM
(#6202916)
Yes, the bacteria infect the apical meristem during embryo development and are included in all cell types and tissues of the mature plant simply by being present at all subsequent cell divisions. It's explained a bit in the patent [1], but there is other data scattered around the literature too.