TNRTB Archive - Retained for reference information
Biologists have discovered a new design feature in soybeans. What they previously knew was that soybean plants provide root nodules that protect and feed certain species of rhizobia. The rhizobia in return fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into chemicals that enhance growth and photosynthesis in the plants. In the new discovery biologists found that soybeans ensure that the rhizobia provide high levels of nitrogen fixation not just for the soybeans but for other plants as well. The soybean plants parcel out life-essential oxygen to the rhizobia in direct proportion to the nitrogen fixation that they provide—a symbiosis and altruism that reveals careful, loving design.
E. Toby Kiers, Robert A. Rousseau, Stuart A. West, and R. Ford Denision, “Host Sanctions and the Legume-Rhizobium Mutualism,” Nature, 425 (2003), pp. 78-81.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12955144
RTB article: Facts for Faith articles on biological evolution
