US Patent Issued to Massachusetts Institute of Technology on April 22 for "Control of nitrogen fixation in rhizobia that associate with cereals" (Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,281,299, issued on April 22, was assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.).

"Control of nitrogen fixation in rhizobia that associate with cereals" was invented by Christopher A. Voigt (Belmont, Mass.) and Min-Hyung Ryu (Cambridge, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein are engineered rhizobia having nif clusters that enable the fixation of nitrogen under free-living conditions, as well as ammonium and oxygen tolerant nitrogen fixation under free-living conditions. Also provided are methods for producing nitrogen for consumption by a cereal crop using these engineered rhizobia."

The patent was fil...