In this article, we will discuss Cyanothece. So, let’s get started.
Cyanothece
- It is a bacteria that is able to fix nitrogen because it has a circadian rhythm.
- Cyanothece photosynthesises during the day, converting sunlight to the chemical energy they use as fuel, and fix nitrogen at night, after removing most of the oxygen created during photosynthesis through respiration.
- By taking the genes from Cyanothece and putting them into another type of cyanobacteria, Synechocystis, scientists could coax it into fixing nitrogen from the air too.
- This could help in engineering plants to develop their own fertilizer by using atmospheric nitrogen to create chlorophyll for photosynthesis.
- Doing so could eliminate the use of some human-made fertilizer, which has a high environmental cost.
