8/12/2019 DukeResearcher raises public money to sequence genome of small fern with massive green potential

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Researcher raises public money to sequence genome ofsmall fern with massive green potential

Scientists from Duke University are raising money through crowdfunding platformExperiment.com to sequence the genome of a promising little fern called Azolla.

Durham, NC, June 15, 2014 -- Scientists from Duke University are raising money throughcrowdfunding platform Experiment.com to sequence the genome of a promising littlefern called Azolla. This could be a huge step towards decreasing Earth s CO2 levels,improving biofuel production, and lowering food prices.

Fifty million years ago, the Earth was so warm that turtles and alligators thrived in lushforests at the poles. Much of the North Pole was covered in a rather less charismatic lifeform: the floating, duckweed-like fern, Azolla .

Recent geological evidence from Arctic Ocean seabeds reveals 50-million-year-oldsediments that are composed almost entirely of Azolla fossils for an 800,000-year span.This interval, known as the „Arctic Azolla event , was a period when Azolla blanketedthe ocean surface repeatedly, forming dense mats of vegetation.

Then something really interesting happened. As these Azolla plants died and becamepart of the sediment, they took atmospheric carbon down with them. Globalatmospheric levels of CO2 fell significantly, precipitating Earth's initial shift from agreenhouse world towards the current icehouse climate that we're now worried willmelt.

8/12/2019 DukeResearcher raises public money to sequence genome of small fern with massive green potential

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Azolla is still with us, floating on the surface of ponds, lakes and rice paddies. Thoughtiny –– one Azolla plant could comfortably sit on top of your smallest fingernail –– it candouble its entire body mass in just less than two days. Some researchers think this makesit a promising alternative for biofuel production and carbon-capture efforts.

But Azolla does yet another interesting trick ––

it captures all the nitrogen fertilizer it needsfrom the atmosphere around it. Since the dawn of agriculture, Asia s farmers haveknown about, and deliberately exploited, the benefits of growing Azolla as acompanion plant with rice. The floating fern thrives in rice paddies, fixing nitrogen andother nutrients, which are released into the environment at the end of each growingseason, constantly improving the soil composition and providing a natural, greenfertilizer that significantly bolsters rice productivity.

The secret here is that Azolla isn't just a plant; it s a „superorganism , a symbioticcollaboration of a plant and a microbe. In a special protective cavity inside each leaf,Azolla hosts a microbe called Nostoc that spends its entire life converting atmosphericnitrogen into food for its host.

Azolla and Nostoc have clearly demonstrated a prodigious ability to combat globalwarming, and to produce precious nitrogen that could help feed the world in a moresustainable way. Even though they have been co-evolving for nearly 100 million years,we know very little about them and how they communicate. Wouldn't it be great tounderstand this symbiotic relationship better, and to be able to understand thebiological "conversation" between the host and the microbe?.

Because it is classified as a “lowly fern,” Azolla has been sidelined in plant genomestudies. Repeated appeals to granting agencies for funding to unlock the know-howembodied by this superorganism have been met with responses like “too

unconventional,” or “too risky.”

But to sustainably produce food for a world population of more than 7 billion people –– all while reducing pollution and greenhouse gases –– we will need to do some "risky"research. Novel ideas and innovative approaches that could reveal just how nature„does what it does naturally might help to revolutionize current farming practices. Thecost of continuing to do the same old, same old makes little economic sense.

Specifically, we need a more sustainable source of nitrogen. By 2015, roughly 200 milliontons of industrially produced, nitrogen-rich fertilizer will be needed to grow the world'sfood, a process that will consume vast amounts of fossil fuel, exacerbating our CO2

problems.I think Azolla and Nostoc have great potential to reduce the world s reliance on fossilfuels, while scrubbing a bunch of CO2 out of the atmosphere in the bargain.

We're not talking about a lot of money to do this. Genomic sequencing of this uniqueAzolla-Nostoc system would cost well under $1 million. That's far less than the $8 billioneach year that U.S. farmers pay for nitrogen fertilizer –– much of which finds its way intorivers and streams, damaging delicate water systems. This small step toward potentially

8/12/2019 DukeResearcher raises public money to sequence genome of small fern with massive green potential

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helping crops to use less synthetic nitrogen could benefit farmers' bottom lines, theenvironment, and the prices we pay for food.

I'd like to see the genome of the Azolla superorganism sequenced so that we canunderstand the language that codes for the molecular machinery underlying this

symbiotic partnership, and possibly tailor it to suit our needs. Knowing how this worksmight even enable us to engineer crops to fix their own nitrogen –– an achievement thatcould truly revolutionize modern agriculture.

Not often does such a small price promise a big gain -https://experiment.com/projects/azolla-a-little-fern-with-massive-green-potential.

Kathleen Pryer is a Professor of Biology at Duke University. She is also President of theAmerican Fern Society and Past-President of the American Society for PlantTaxonomists.

For More Information: Dr. Kathleen Pryer, Duke University, 919-660-7380, pryer@duke.edu