The Role of Epi- and Endophytic Nitrogen Fixation in Natural and Anthropogenic Landscapes

Dear Colleagues,

Plants are generally classified as “N₂-fixing”, based entirely on the ability to form root nodules. However, many plant species are not nodule-forming, yet effectively colonize N-poor sediments. Over the last few decades, studies have demonstrated that N₂-fixing endophytic bacteria can be found throughout the plant body of some plant species and epiphytic bacteria have been found to bind tightly to leaves, rhizoids and root surfaces of plants. While some have argued that N₂-fixation must be limited to microaerobic root nodules to prevent inactivation of the nitrogenase enzyme by oxygen, multiple lines of evidence demonstrate that N-fixation is possible in and on planta. N₂-fixing bacteria evolved multiple methods to protect nitrogenase from oxygen, and microaerobic environments conducive to N-fixation do exist within plant tissues. N₂-fixing endophytic bacteria were first isolated from grasses, such as kallar grass and sugarcane, and more recently with a wide variety of plant species capable of growth without external N fertilizer inputs. These findings, along with the observed rapid colonization of recently exposed glacial sediments by “non-N₂-fixing species” hint at an adaptive relationship between plants and microorganisms underlying the persistence of these non-N₂-fixing species under low N conditions and suggest a new avenue for research and development in ecosystem N biochemistry.

This Special Issue of Nitrogen will host current research, knowledge and thinking on epi- and endophytic N₂ fixation and serve as a spring board for research development in the world of N₂ fixation.

Prof. Thomas H. DeLuca
Guest Editor

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