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Rhizobia Research

The second annual Country Calendar Scholarship has been awarded to Rachael Studholme, a Masters student at Otago's Department of Microbiology.

Her project involves a mix of genetics and ecology and is focused on an important but little understood area of soil bacteria biology. Rhizobia bacteria infect root nodules in legumes such as clover, peas and lucerne, turning nitrogen from the atmosphere into ammonia, which is used by the plant.

It is common practice for farmers to use added rhizobium "inoculants" on seeds of legume crops. These inoculants compete with the indigenous rhizobia already in the soil, however, and Studholme's work is to try to make the inoculant rhizobia more competitive.

"The work is risky, being innovative research, but if it comes off it will be a very big step forward," says Dr Bruce Miller of the Royal Society.