Cambridge scientists have identified two crucial genetic factors needed to produce specialized root organs that can accommodate nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes such as peas and beans. In a ...

How plants acquire nutrients is a fundamental life process. Some plants have developed beneficial associations with bacteria and fungi to help them access essential elements such as phosphate and ...

Recent research on Lotus japonicus, a model leguminous plant, has unveiled that the interaction between legume roots and rhizobia is characterized by periodic gene expression with a six-hour rhythm.

Nitrogen fixation by bacteria occurs in root nodules of nitrogen-fixing trees. This nitrogen fixer, a member of the genus Inga, is growing in a recovering tropical forest in Panama. Trees with the ...

From lentils to chickpeas, and even the humble baked bean, pulses are perhaps best known as an alternative, plant-based source of protein. These plants are environmental heroes: they work together ...

The developmental regulators that confer the identity of N-fixing root nodules belong to a transcription factor family (LSH) more commonly associated with defining the shapes of stems, flowers and ...