Could This Slimy Corn 'Fix' One of Earth's Biggest Pollution Problems?

A species of corn native to the Sierra Mixe region of Oaxaca, Mexico has been identified to be a potential aid against one of the world's biggest pollution problems: excess nitrogen. This corn species, which the locals have been growing and eating for hundreds of years, is unlike other corn. It stands twice as high as conventional corn, but more unusual, protruding from under the stalk are red aerial roots coated in a slimy goo. This goo plays an important part in allowing this plant to be the first known species of corn to be able to “fix” its own Nitrogen.

 

Goo covered corn roots (Oaxaca, Mexico)

All organisms need nitrogen. The abundant chemical element is incorporated into the backbones of essential macro-molecules such as DNA and Proteins, without which, all organisms would cease to function and grow. Even though Nitrogen makes up roughly 80% of Earth's atmosphere, Nitrogen gas is of no use to plants and animals. Through the Haber process developed in the early 20th century, we can convert atmospheric nitrogen to Ammonia which through synthetic fertilizers, can be taken up by plants.

                            

The Haber Process

            With the size of our current population, synthetic fertilizers are an essential component of farming. Because it's difficult for farmers to estimate the amount of fertilizer needed, most of plant fertilizers go to waste. According to Xin Zhang, an environmental scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, “About 57 percent of the Nitrogen in fertilizer ends up polluting the environment”. Nitrogen pollution can lead to bigger problems. In the U.S. for example, excess nitrogen from fertilizers drain into rivers and lakes which support the growth of algae. When these algae die, the bacteria that decompose them use up so much oxygen that they form “dead zones”, hypoxic areas in bodies of water unsustainable for aquatic life. This isn’t the only problem with synthetic fertilizers: their production releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere depleting the ozone layer and causing global warming.

            Is this strange species of corn the answer to our pollution problem? It might not be, but it’s a good sign. The slimy goo coating the roots feeds bacteria that naturally fix atmospheric Nitrogen. The corn plants then take up the fixed nitrogen. In other words, these plants fix their own Nitrogen, or more correctly, they provide an environment to allow microbes to do it for them. Unfortunately, this corn takes 8 months to develop, as opposed to conventional corn's three months. Apart from the problem of efficiency, another setback is that oxygen, which the bacteria need, is harmful to the enzymes the microbes use to fix Nitrogen. To engineer the capability to control the amount of oxygen these microbes receive would be a huge challenge. If such a technological advancement were possible, Poorer farmers would be able to boost their yields to the tune of $2.5 billion to $7.2 billion” according to David Zilberman, an agricultural economist at the University of California, Berkeley. 

https://www.livescience.com/63435-what-is-nitrogen-fixation.html