NitroBLAST
Laying the foundation for nitrogen fixation
Nitrogen
Nitrogen gas, comprising 78% of Earth's atmosphere, is the most abundant chemical in the air.
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants.
However, N₂ is highly inert, making it difficult for plants to convert it into useful compounds that they can consume.
The Haber-Bosch process
In nature, the amount of nitrogenous compounds for plant consumption is limited, requiring fertiliser.
The Haber-Bosch process revolutionized agriculture by industrializing nitrogen fixation, greatly boosting agricultural productivity and feeding a large portion of the global population.
However, each year 200 million tonnes of reactive nitrogen is lost to the environment.
Over-fertilization
Over 80% of ammonia emissions in the Netherlands are due to over-fertilization.
Eutrophication
Excessive ammonia enrichment promotes uncontrolled algal blooms in water bodies causing eutrophication, which leads to loss of biodiversity.
We wouldn't need fertilizers, which could reduce up to 2% of global CO2 emissions due to their production.
We could:
reduce nitrogen emissions.
prevent eutrophication.
and protect biodiversity while sustaining agricultural productivity.
Laying the foundation for nitrogen fixation.
More than a 100 million years ago, a marine alga Braarudosphaera bigelowii came into existence.
This algae originally had a symbiotic association with a bacterium named UCYN-A which would fixate nitrogen for it.
This bacterium eventually became an organelle in Braarudosphaera bigelowii through endosymbiosis, making it the first nitrogen-fixing organelle - the nitroplast.
Nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes
We aim to transplant nitroplasts from B. bigelowii into other cells to create nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes.