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HOLY SH*T. THEY FOUND NITROGEN-FIXING CORN BRED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN MEXICO. @botanyshitposts​

“The study found the Sierra Mixe corn obtains 28 to 82 percent of its nitrogen from the atmosphere. To do this, the corn grows a series of aerial roots. Unlike conventional corn, which has one or two groups of aerial roots near its base, the nitrogen-fixing corn develops eight to ten thick aerial roots that never touch the ground.

During certain times of the year, these roots secrete a gel-like substance, or mucilage. The mucilage provides the low-oxygen and sugar-rich environment required to attract bacteria that can transform nitrogen from the air into a form the corn can use.

“Our research has demonstrated that the mucilage found in this Sierra Mixe corn forms a key component of its nitrogen fixation,“ said co-author Jean-Michel Ané, professor of agronomy and bacteriology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW–Madison. “We have shown this through growth of the plant both in Mexico and Wisconsin.”

…

“ Researchers are a long way from developing a similar nitrogen-fixing trait for commercial corn, but this is a first step to guide further research on that application. The discovery could lead to a reduction of fertilizer use for corn, one of the world’s major cereal crops. It takes 1 to 2 percent of the total global energy supply to produce fertilizer. The energy-intensive process is also responsible for 1 to 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “

Two things make me hopeful that this will not just disappear into corporate-owned varieties: one, this research was largely done through two land grant universities. Over decades. This is what land grant universities are FOR: their stated purpose is to do useful shit that’s too unprofitable for corporate R&D to care about. They are exactly the people you want developing awesome new ag tech. Mars, Inc. is involved with this too, and I trust them…not at all, but they’re not Monsanto, so it could be worse.

The other thing is this, from the linked article:

The municipal authority and community in the isolated village in the Sierra Mixe region were an integral part of this research project. Biological materials were accessed and utilized under an Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Agreement with the community and with permission from the Mexican government. An internationally recognized certificate of compliance under the Nagoya Protocol has been issued for such activities.

The ABS Agreement was structured under the terms of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, which is designed to ensure the equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources and contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

I don’t know the details of the Nagoya Protocol. But at the very least, this isn’t outright theft of indigenous technology for corporate profit. Someone has at least thought through an equitable way for the community that developed this trait over centuries of growing maize to benefit from its use.

Finally: this is (one reason) why it’s important to preserve local crop varieties (also called landraces). Most industrialized agriculture is incredibly homogeneous genetically. It’s from the landraces that people developed slowly for specific conditions that we can find new traits–this is an extreme example, but it’s common to find landraces that are resistant to certain pests and diseases.

Oh and one more thing: Zea mays aka maize aka corn aka “indigenous Mesoamericans were better crop breeders than anyone alive today, apparently” is the WEIRDEST FUCKING PLANT, WHAT THE FUCK.

My standards for “poor soil” are skewed by working in Africa, so what these folks call “poor” seems pretty okay to me, but STILL, they’re reporting 2000 kg/ha maize grain yield with no fertilizer inputs, from a tall, slow-growing local variety. That is pretty good, in the context of low-input agricultural systems on not-so-great soil. Which is a good sign that it’s possible to get decent yields even while the plant is spending extra energy on getting nitrogen.

This is actually not an obvious thing. Nitrogen fixation is a collaborative effort between a plant and some clever bacteria. The plant feeds the bacteria carbohydrates, the bacteria turns N2 from the air into ammonia, which the plant can use to make proteins (plants can’t use N2 directly because it’s too hard to break apart. N-fixing bacteria have special skills). This is pretty cool, but it does have a cost to the plant: carbohydrates that go toward feeding bacteria can’t be put into grain or leaves. So if you can get nitrates and ammonia and whatnot directly from the soil, it’s not worth the extra effort to feed all these hungry bacteria. That’s probably why this trait was bred out of  most maize varieties around today, and why it’s unlikely that N2-fixing corn will become widespread in, say, the US corn belt. As long as fertilizer is cheap, it’ll be more profitable to let the plant focus on making grain and get the nitrogen elsewhere. 

Nitrogen fixation is much more useful in places where fertilizer is NOT cheap or easily accessible (like, say, most of Africa). But there’ll have to be a lot of breeding work done before we can get varieties with the “makes goop for bacteria” genes but not the “grows 16 feet (5m) tall and that’s a waste of energy” genes and the “takes 8-9 months to reach maturity and that’s too long if it only rains for 4 months out of the year” genes.

That breeding work needs to be done by public organizations–universities, national agricultural research services, the CGIAR–or else the profits will go to whatever corporation does it first. Or, more likely, since poor farmers aren’t considered a profitable target market, there won’t be nitrogen-fixing varieties that are appropriate to the wide range of smallholder growing conditions. In the US, this means the USDA and USAID and NSF funding. Long-term funding, because crop breeding is slow (yes, even with genetic engineering).

From Stardust to …Cone

Sockeye Salmon

This was such a great opportunity, and as I mentioned before, the importance of salmon in the ecosystem was such a cool thing learn about. My client mentioned that you can trace nitrogen isotopes from the ocean to trees that get nutrients from salmon that fertilize the forest.