Opportunities for Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Rice and Other Non-Legumes : Papers presented at the Second Working Group Meeting of the Frontier Project on Nitrogen Fixation in Rice held at the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Faisalabad, Pakistan, 13-15 October 1996

1. Introduction: Assessing opportunities for nitrogen fixation in rice - a frontier project.- 2. Fertilizers and biological nitrogen fixation as sources of plant nutrients: Perspectives for future agriculture.- 3. Isolation of endophytic diazotrophic bacteria from wetland rice.- 4. Isolation of endophytic bacteria from rice and assessment of their potential for supplying rice with biologically fixed nitrogen.- 5. Association of nitrogen-fixing, plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) with kallar grass and rice.- 6. Occurrence, physiological and molecular analysis of endophytic diazotrophic bacteria in gramineous energy plants.- 7. Azoarcus spp. and their interactions with grass roots.- 8. Biological nitrogen fixation in non-leguminous field crops: Facilitating the evolution of an effective association between Azospirillum and wheat.- 9. Rhizobial communication with rice roots: Induction of phenotypic changes, mode of invasion and extent of colonization.- 10. Natural endophytic association between Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii and rice roots and assessment of its potential to promote rice growth.- 11. Interactions of rhizobia with rice and wheat.- 12. Interactions between bacterial diazotrophs and non-legume dicots: Arabidopsis thaliana as a model plant.- 13. Root morphogenesis in legumes and cereals and the effect of bacterial inoculation on root development.- 14. Strategies for increased ammonium production in free-living or plant associated nitrogen fixing bacteria.- 15. Genetics of Azospirillum brasilense with respect to ammonium transport, sugar uptake, and chemotaxis.- 16. Chitin recognition in rice and legumes.- 17. The role of phytohormones in plant-microbe symbioses.- 18. The impact of molecular systematics on hypotheses for the evolution of root nodule symbioses and implications for expanding symbioses to new host plant genera.- 19. Nif gene transfer and expression in chloroplasts: Prospects and problems.- 20. Enhancing biological nitrogen fixation: An appraisal of current and alternative technologies for N input into plants.