Thrust 2: BNI Research

This research thrust is aimed at designing, developing, and evaluating a biosensor network to monitor BNI-enabled plant species with maize as a model crop. Globally, approximately 50–70% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to cropping systems is not absorbed by plants but lost to the environment.

Nitrification, a key microbial process in the global nitrogen cycle, while it transforms immobile ammonium (NH₄⁺) to highly mobile nitrate (NO3^-), it also enhances losses of fertilizer nitrogen by leaching and denitrification. Further, nitrification and subsequent denitrification are the primary source of nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, which is the third most important greenhouse gas (GHG) and the primary ozone-depleting substance.

Synthetic nitrification inhibitors have been proposed to suppress microbial nitrification activity, but are not widely adopted in practice.

However, the center's research goal is to develop biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) materials from plants to naturally suppress nitrification and mitigate N₂O emissions. Maize being the most widely grown and produced crop in the US and worldwide and given the economic importance and intensity of nitrogen use of maize is concerned, the center is interested to develop high BNI-producing maize varieties that could have the potential to significantly impact enhancing nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) and declining nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from farming of this crop in the U.S. and abroad.