Engineered bacteria are weaning farms away from synthetic fertilizers

Scientists are engineering bacteria that can provide nitrogen, an essential ingredient for plant growth, to wheat crops. Credit: Shakeel Ahmed/Anadolu Agency/Getty

The world’s farms depend on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers to increase crop yields, but the production and use of these chemicals generates billions of tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions every year. Now, scientists are making progress on a greener alternative: bioengineered bacteria.

This approach takes a cue from natural bacteria that ‘fix’ nitrogen into a useful form and provide it to certain plants. Scientists are engineering genetic features into bacteria with the aim of enabling them to fix nitrogen for important food crops, such as maize (corn) and wheat, that don’t have such natural microbial partners.

In a comment published on 10 November in Nature Biotechnology1, researchers suggest that bioengineered bacteria could eventually replace up to half of synthetic fertilizers. The bacteria deliver nitrogen more efficiently to roots than synthetic fertilizers do, which could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and nitrogen pollution of waterways. But this would require a slew of advances, from getting different microbial species to work together to more-rigourous field trials.

How CRISPR could yield the next blockbuster crop

In September, Switch Bioworks also received approval from the Brazilian regulatory agency, the National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CNTBio), to test its strains there. This is the first time that a transgenic bacterium of any kind has been approved for field tests in the country, says molecular biologist Mario Murakami, who is the president of CTNBio in Campinas.

Companies that have focused on editing bacterial genes rather than producing transgenic microbes are further along. Pivot Bio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has already applied its gene-edited biofertilizers to tens of millions of hectares of US farmland over the past decade, says the company’s chief technology officer Travis Frey. Some of Pivot Bio’s products have also been tested in Canada, Argentina, Kenya and Brazil.

Greedy microbes

Most plants can’t use the form of nitrogen that is present in the air. Some crops, including soya beans and peanuts, host colonies of bacteria that can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form. The plant takes up that nitrogen and, in return, provides carbon that fuels bacterial growth. But most staple crops lack these microbial partners, leading farmers to rely on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. These chemical fertilizers account for 5% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, and drive damaging nutrient pollution in waterways.

For decades, researchers have tried to get bacteria to fix nitrogen for staple crops. Until recently, the approach was to collect wild strains of nitrogen-fixing bacteria from soil and apply them to seeds or spray them onto plants. “It doesn’t work,” says Jean-Michel Ané, a bioengineer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who is working on microbial fertilizers. The wild microbes fail to thrive when applied to crops that don’t provide them with carbon.

How to climate-proof crops: scientists say the secret’s in the dirt

Enjoying our latest content? Log in or create an account to continue

• Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team

• Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-03641-8

Updates & Corrections

• Correction 11 November 2026: An earlier version of this article misstated the location of Pivot Bio’s global headquarters.

References

• Haskett, T. et al. Nature Biotechnol. 44, 1774–1778 (2026).Article Google Scholar

Haskett, T. et al. Nature Biotechnol. 44, 1774–1778 (2026).

Article Google Scholar

Download references

Reprints and permissions

Related Articles

• Microbes: next-generation fertilizers

• The hunt for the next CRISPR: how warring microbes are inspiring new technology

• A novel fertilizer with a reduced carbon footprint

• Enlisting photosynthetic microbes to achieve a carbon-neutral world

• A 1970s patent that changed the course of commercial biotechnology

Subjects

• Plant sciences

• Biotechnology

• Sustainability

• Microbiology

Latest on:

• Plant sciences

• Biotechnology

• Sustainability

• A plant RNA-binding protein senses 2′,3′-cNMP produced by insect effectors Article 11 NOV 26

A plant RNA-binding protein senses 2′,3′-cNMP produced by insect effectors

Article 11 NOV 26

• A conserved flowering-time module underlies double-season cropping Article 04 NOV 26

A conserved flowering-time module underlies double-season cropping

Article 04 NOV 26

• An environmentally regulated dichotomy in cell lineages of the root Article 21 OCT 26

An environmentally regulated dichotomy in cell lineages of the root

Article 21 OCT 26

• Biotech innovations are an opportunity to limit climate change Editorial 11 NOV 26

Biotech innovations are an opportunity to limit climate change

Editorial 11 NOV 26

• Anthropic bought a one-person, AI-powered biotech: is this drug discovery’s future? News 11 NOV 26

Anthropic bought a one-person, AI-powered biotech: is this drug discovery’s future?

News 11 NOV 26

• Cholera bacterium’s good deed: inspiring a glue with rare properties Research Highlight 06 NOV 26

Cholera bacterium’s good deed: inspiring a glue with rare properties

Research Highlight 06 NOV 26

• Even giant anteaters in remote Brazil have microplastics in their blood News 11 NOV 26

Even giant anteaters in remote Brazil have microplastics in their blood

News 11 NOV 26

• AI’s energy paradox: will the AI boom strain energy systems or be the source of solutions? Spotlight 11 NOV 26

AI’s energy paradox: will the AI boom strain energy systems or be the source of solutions?

Spotlight 11 NOV 26

• How microbes can secure the critical minerals the world needs Comment 10 NOV 26

How microbes can secure the critical minerals the world needs

Comment 10 NOV 26

Jobs

• Associate or Senior Editor, Communications AI & Computing Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Communications AI & Computing Locations: Shanghai, Beijing, Pune, New Delhi, Berlin or Madrid (hybrid) Appli... Shanghai, Beijing, Pune, New Delhi, Berlin or Madrid (hybrid) Springer Nature Ltd

Associate or Senior Editor, Communications AI & Computing

Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Communications AI & Computing Locations: Shanghai, Beijing, Pune, New Delhi, Berlin or Madrid (hybrid) Appli...

Shanghai, Beijing, Pune, New Delhi, Berlin or Madrid (hybrid)

Springer Nature Ltd

• Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow focus on ferroic smart materials: shape-memory alloys, piezoelectric ceramics, and magnetostrictive materials, etc Ningbo, Zhejiang (CN) Center for Advanced Smart Materials (CASM), Yongjiang Laboratory (Y-Lab)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Fellow focus on ferroic smart materials: shape-memory alloys, piezoelectric ceramics, and magnetostrictive materials, etc

Ningbo, Zhejiang (CN)

Center for Advanced Smart Materials (CASM), Yongjiang Laboratory (Y-Lab)

• Principal Investigator/ Associate Professor PI & Associate Professor class focus on innovative research about ferroic smart materials or technology transfer Ningbo, Zhejiang (CN) Center for Advanced Smart Materials (CASM), Yongjiang Laboratory (Y-Lab)

Principal Investigator/ Associate Professor

PI & Associate Professor class focus on innovative research about ferroic smart materials or technology transfer

Ningbo, Zhejiang (CN)

Center for Advanced Smart Materials (CASM), Yongjiang Laboratory (Y-Lab)

• Open-Rank Faculty Position in Basic Biomedical Research WashU Medicine’s Dept of Anesthesiology seeks applicants for a tenure-track or tenured faculty position in the Division of Basic Research. Saint Louis, Missouri WashU Medicine - Anesthesiology

Open-Rank Faculty Position in Basic Biomedical Research

WashU Medicine’s Dept of Anesthesiology seeks applicants for a tenure-track or tenured faculty position in the Division of Basic Research.

Saint Louis, Missouri

WashU Medicine - Anesthesiology

• Global Recruitment of Outstanding Young Talents We are seeking exceptional candidates who qualify for the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (Overseas) 1068 Xueyuan Avenue, Shenzhen 518055 P. R. China Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences（CAS)

Global Recruitment of Outstanding Young Talents

We are seeking exceptional candidates who qualify for the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (Overseas)

1068 Xueyuan Avenue, Shenzhen 518055 P. R. China

Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences（CAS)