It has always been a problem to get nitrogen into the soil of crops.
Some scientists tend to use a lot of natural gas, something that can't be ignored in the wake of a growing climate crisis, because they have come up with industrial methods of generating fertilization.
Scientists in China claim to have developed a strain of rice that can use nitrogen more efficiently and grow faster.
They wanted to diminish the crop's reliance on nitrogen in order to reduce the environmental impact of fertilization.
A team of Chinese genetic engineers warn in a new paper in the journal Science that excessive use of nitrogen in agriculture poses serious threats to both human health and the environment.
Scientists used a previous analysis of transcription factors to identify 118 of them that may be regulators of photosynthesis
The researchers narrowed the pool down to a single distinct transcription factor that controls the use of nitrogen. It sounds like a slam dunk.
The research went beyond the lab. The scientists tested their rice in three different places.
Even when there was less nitrogen available, the plants had a higher yield than wild rice.
Up to 40 percent more grain was produced by the modified rice plants.
The experts were impressed with what they saw. Pam Ronald is a rice geneticist at the University of California, Davis. It's amazing.
It is not the first time that genetically engineered rice has been promoted as a panacea.
Golden Rice was supposed to save children from suffering from a deficiency in vitamins A and C. Its stated goals could never be realized because of the lack of widespreadadoption.
There is a widespread backlash and scrutiny from the average citizens.
We will have to wait and see how this research pans out, but it sounds promising.
Doctors transplant pig hearts into dead human bodies.
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