Question

The researchers want to compare the amount of nitrogen in plants grown with bacteria and those without. Which macromolecule in the plant can researchers use to measure nitrogen content in the plants?

Enter a one or two word answer.

Answer 1

Proteins or nucleic acids

The bacteria which is associated with plants for nitrogen fixation is mainly rhizobium. It is the nitrogen fixing bacteria in case of leguminous plants. It is a bacteria which live in symbiotic association in the cortical cells of the roots of the plants. Other free living bacteria which are responsible for nitrogen fixation are Azotobacter and Frankia.

Nitrogen fixation is the process of conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates and nitrites. The plants cannot use dinitrogen from the atmosphere directly but can use nitrogen in the form of nitrate and nitrite. These are ions are taken up by the plants from the soil and are incorporated into protein and nucleic acid synthesis.

Proteins contain nitrogen in the form of amino group and nucleic acids contain nitrogen which is present in the nitrogenous base. So both proteins and nucleic acids can be the possible answer.

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