'Farming' bacteria to boost growth in the oceans

Chemosynthetic symbionts are bacteria living inside or on the surface of animals, supplying their host with food that would otherwise be unavailable. It has long been known that these bacteria fix carbon and convert it into organic forms. Microbiologist Jillian Petersen and colleagues from the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology now reveal that the same is possible for nitrogen. Chemosynthetic bacteria transform inert nitrogen gas into bioavailable forms. As