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Phytoremediation of Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide Using Transgenic Plants

 

Global warming is the most important environmental threat facing humanity. Extreme global warming would have an impact on human existence comparable to global nuclear war.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) has 300 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.Atmospheric levels of N2O are increasing at rates comparable to the increase of carbon dioxide. The primary source of anthropogenic N2O emissions is the use of fertilizers and manures in high yield agriculture.

Here we propose a new, genetic engineering technology that can prevent the release of N2O into the atmosphere from agricultural soils. The bacterial enzyme N2O reductase can catalyze N2O to N2, but in most soils this enzyme is repressed. Instead of modifying bacteria, we propose to introduce bacterial N2O reductase into crop plant roots, using the mitochondria as surrogate “bacteria”. This is possible because bacteria and mitochondria are derived from a common evolutionary bacterial ancestor.