Uptake of the nitrogen fixing blue-green alga Gloeocapsa by plant protoplasts.

Abstract

In the face of rising world population and diminishing reserves of fossil fuels needed to produce chemical fertilizers, scientists have been motivated to study the process of biological nitrogen fixation. At present nitrogen fixation is limited to certain prokaryotic organisms, which are either free living or are symbionts with plants (chiefly legumes). High demand for chemical fertilizers, and the energy needed to produce them, could be alleviated by introducing the nitrogen fixation process into economically important non-leguminous crop plants. Recent developments in plant protoplast technology have made this goal seem more attainable. Of particular interest was the discovery by Kao and Michayluk (13 in 1974 that polyethylene glycol (PEG) stimulates high frequencies of protoplast fusion.