\u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling to know that research like this can be applied to improving agricultural practices. Ultimately, our desire is to eliminate our dependence on chemical pesticides and if we can better exploit this natural phenomenon, we may be able to achieve our goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the original study, the researchers discovered that the Metarhizium<\/em> fungus kills bugs and transfers nitrogen from those bugs to the roots of plants.<\/p>\n The new research reveals that plants, in turn, transfer carbohydrates back to the fungus.<\/p>\n \u201cThis brings the interactions of the fungus Metarhizium <\/em>with its host plant full circle,\u201d said Bidochka. \u201cThis is the other half of our earlier research.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a mutually beneficial relationship. Plants need nitrogen to grow, develop and reproduce, yet plants often find it difficult to get enough nitrogen.<\/p>\n \u201cOur atmosphere is loaded with nitrogen,\u201d said Bidochka. \u201cYet, interestingly, all nitrogen in plants come from bacteria in the ground unless commercial fertilizers are used.\u201d<\/p>\n These bacteria \u201cfix\u201d nitrogen, or make nitrogen available to plants by binding it with other chemicals. Nitrogen is also key to a plant process called photosynthesis in which plants harness energy from sunlight and fix carbon dioxide, producing carbohydrates.<\/p>\n Because the fungus is giving the plant more nitrogen from the insects that the fungus kills, the plant is able to create more carbohydrates.<\/p>\n Bidochka\u2019s research team \u2014 in cooperation with chemistry instructor Paul Zelisko, graduate student Larissa Barelli and Scott Behie, who published the original discovery<\/a> of the nitrogen transfer when he was a graduate student in 2012 \u2014 found that some of these plant carbohydrates made their way back into the fungus.<\/p>\n In addition to being plant food, carbohydrates are also food for the fungus.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most limiting resources for organisms living in the soil is free carbon,\u201d said Bidochka, adding that the soil-dwelling fungus is unable to photosynthesize its food from sunlight. \u201cThis fungus has figured out a way to get a good source of carbon.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"fungus2\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Fungus2-300x255.jpeg\")
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