BIOLOGY PROJECT
By: Aakriti Bansal
9D
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF
BACTERIA IN AGRICULTURE
It is quiet evident that microorganisms in soil can both help and harm plants. The “helpful”
microorganisms are called biofertilizers which promote and benefit plant growth. These are
better than the chemical fertilizers used as they are a lot less costly and reduce environmental
damage and improve crop productivity. These microorganisms can facilitate directly or
indirectly, the availability of certain nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and water,
produce substances called plant hormones promoting plant growth. Focusing on bacteria, the
different bacterial genera which act as biofertilizers are Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Rhizobium,
Agrobacterium, Burkholderia, Achromobacter, Micrococcus, Aerobacter, Flavobacterium
and Erwinia.
In this report we shall be looking into Rhizobium, a bacterium which helps fix atmospheric
nitrogen into leguminous plants.
Approximately 78% of the earth’s atmosphere is nitrogen. But why do plants need nitrogen?
Plants can’t use the nitrogen present in the air, dinitrogen directly because plants are
incapable of absorbing nitrogen in its gaseuos form. Usually plants absorb a lot of nitrogen
hence the soil becomes deficient in nitrogen. Hence they need bacteria in the soil convert the
nitrogen to ammonium and nitrate, which are the other forms of nitrogen, by a process known
as nitrogen fixation. In order to make amino acids, proteins and DNA plants need nitrogen.
Rhizobium
Rhizobium is a nonspore-forming rod-shaped, motile, aerobic, gram-negative soil bacterium
that lives in symbiotic association with the root nodules of the leguminous plants.
Rhizobium reside in roots of gram, peas, moong, beans and other legumes and provides them
with nitrogen. In return, the plants provide food and shelter to the bacteria. The rhizobia–
legume symbiosis is a widely studied example of mutualism because legumes are important
food crops.
Rhizobium is agriculturally important in 2
aspects:
1) HELPING LEGUMINOUS PLANTS CONVERT
ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN TO SOLUBLE
NITROGEN
PROCESS:
Leguminous plants such as beans have the bacteria, Rhizobium leguminosarum within the
nodules of their roots. The bacteria first enters an epidermal cell of the root causing the root
to develop an infection thread. The bacteria will then move through the infection thread until
it reaches a cell deep within the cortex. The cortex cells will divide quickly forming a nodule.
The rhizobia will also multiply rapidly within a nodule. The bacteria, now referred to as
bacteroids, will begin the conversion of nitrogen to ammonia. Once atmospheric air reaches
the root nodule, oxygen will combine with the leghemoglobin. This combination thereby
promotes nitrogenous activity. The nitrogen molecules with the help of nitrogenase will
combine with hydrogen molecules to first form ammonia, and then an ammonium ion.
Ammonium ions are absorbed by the plant via ammonia transporters. Nitrate is taken up by
several nitrate transporters that use a proton gradient to power the transport. Nitrogen is
transported from the root to the shoot via the xylem in the form of nitrate, dissolved ammonia
and amino acids.
2)IMPROVING THE FERTILITY OF SOIL
Often, inoculant rhizobia can remain viable in the soil without the presence of a
legume for years, and then be ready to form nodules when its host plant is sown. This
means that nitrogen will still remain in the soil where it will enrich it.
Economic importance of rhizobium
Increasing legume use in agriculture is a key requirement for the sustainable intensification of
global farming systems. Reports reveal that pilot-scale biofertilizer production using
Rhizobium is a profit-making venture that can magnetize new entrepreneurs.
However parasitic rhizobia infect legumes, but fix little or no nitrogen.
Nonsymbiotic strains are unable to infect legumes at all. Hence the one
mentioned above was symbiotic rhizobium which is actually good for the plant.
References:
https://ideagro.es/en/la-importancia-de-las-
bacterias-en-la-agricultura/
https://byjus.com/biology/rhizobium/
#:~:text=Rhizobium%20is%20a%20bacterium
%20found,for%20its%20growth%20and
%20development.
https://youtu.be/9zNMpavpET8
