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Why can’t plants make their own nitrogenase? Why do they need to outsource the nitrogen fixation to bacteria?
by FriedPickles 6y ago
Why can’t plants make their own nitrogenase? Why do they need to outsource the nitrogen fixation to bacteria?
- ncmncm 6y agoThey never invented it for themselves. Attracting nitrogen-fixing bacteria turned out to be easier. Nature loves easier.
- rsynnott 6y agoI mean, why can't we live on sunlight, or purely on carbohydrates and trace elements? Organisms evolve for their environments; if something in your diet or the environment is producing enough of (whatever) for your needs, there's not much evolutionary pressure to produce it yourself. Or even keep the machinery for producing it in working order, if you have it. Vitamins are a good example, we need them, but we don't produce them (except for D, but there are practical problems producing that in the environments and latitudes in which humans now live).