Pivot Bio sells microbes that allow cereal crops to benefit from this process. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this process which only occurs naturally in bacteria living on dicots (“DIE-cots”). Ongoing efforts to get it to work on monocots like corn aim to expand the colonization of di·azo·trophs or to express rhizobial (“rye-ZOH-bee-uhl”) genes in chloroplasts.
ANSWER: biological nitrogen fixation [or fixing nitrogen; or BNF; accept biological production of ammonia; prompt on fixation]
[10e] Slow-growing rhizobia (“RYE-zoh-bee-uh”) can only live on legumes because they form symbiotic nodules with these plant organs, allowing them to outcompete other microbes in the soil.
ANSWER: lateral roots
[10h] Rhizobia can be tricked into colonizing cereal roots if the crops secrete activators of this process of density-dependent signaling in bacteria. This process regulates bio·luminescence through the lux operon.
ANSWER: quorum sensing [or QS; or quorum signaling]
<Adam Silverman, Science - Biology> ~20876~ <Editor: Adam Silverman>