Engineering Bacillus Subtilis for Controlled Gaseous Nitrogen Fixation to Reduce Artificial Nitrogen Utilization and Enhance Microbial Community Function

Executive Summary

We will engineer Bacillus subtilis to fix nitrogen under heat stress and in marginal soils, and to form synthetic communities that include the engineered Bacillus subtilis strains to enable dynamic microbial community function in the rhizosphere as a replacement for fertilizers. This will change the industrial procedure for artificial nitrogen fixation, which will save valuable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance bioenergy and food crop production.