German company Bayer has licensed a wheat gene-editing technology that could potentially enable plants to obtain nitrogen from the air with the help of soil bacteria. If the technology can be developed for commercial use, it could reduce agriculture's need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, lower farmers' costs and reduce food production's dependence on imports. However, the technology is not expected to reach the market until the next decade at the earliest.

Bayer intends to use the technology licensed from researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to develop new varieties of cereal crops. The technology uses the CRISPR tool to alter the composition of substances released by plant roots in order to attract bacteria capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen.

Plants need nitrogen to grow and produce a harvest. However, unlike legumes, wheat, rice and corn cannot obtain it directly from the air. Their cultivation therefore depends heavily on the application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

How researchers plan to help wheat obtain nitrogen from the air

The mechanism the researchers intend to use is based on interactions between plant roots and microorganisms in the soil. A team led by Eduardo Blumwald, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, previously tested this approach on wheat. Using gene editing, the researchers increased the production of apigenin, a naturally occurring flavonoid found in the plant. Excess amounts of this substance were released through the roots into the soil, attracting nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

The microorganisms gathered around the roots and formed biofilms in the rhizosphere—the area of soil immediately surrounding the root system. There, the bacteria converted atmospheric nitrogen into a form the plant could absorb. Trials showed that the modified wheat maintained higher yields than control plants even with extremely low applications of nitrogen fertilizer.

It was this result that attracted Bayer's interest. Matthias Berninger, the company's head of public affairs and sustainability, described the technology as one of the industry's “holy grails.” He said it could open up fundamentally new possibilities for crops that currently depend on fertilizers. Berninger acknowledged that the technology might not live up to all expectations, but stressed that the company believes it is essential to invest actively in this area.

Why fertilizers have become a strategic issue

Interest in the technology goes beyond the potential to reduce farmers' costs. The production and supply of nitrogen fertilizers depend on international supply chains, and disruptions can affect agricultural commodity prices and food security.

Urea is the world's most widely used nitrogen fertilizer. Berninger estimates that its market is worth $85 billion. For Bayer, the new technology offers an opportunity to capture part of this market: if farmers spend less on urea, some of that spending could shift to seeds with genetically modified traits. For agricultural producers, this could also mean a reduction in one of their largest expense categories. As the Bayer representative noted, fertilizer costs often far exceed other categories of farming expenses.

There is also an environmental aspect. Synthetic fertilizers support a substantial share of global food production, but their manufacture and use are associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the need for these fertilizers could lessen agriculture's environmental impact. Fertilizer supply disruptions and rising prices amid the war involving Iran have added urgency to the issue. These events have once again exposed the vulnerability of countries and farms that depend on fertilizer imports from a limited number of supplier nations.

Changes to European legislation have become another factor that could accelerate progress in this field. In June, the European Parliament approved rules governing plants produced using new genomic techniques (NGTs). These rules provide for assessing such plants on the basis of their final genetic characteristics, rather than solely on the method used to make the changes. This creates more favorable conditions for allowing certain gene-edited crops onto the market.