Critical Reasoning (CR) | Re: Rhizobium bacteria living in the roots of bean plants or other legumes

Rhizobium bacteria living in the roots of bean plants or other legumes produce fixed nitrogen which is one of the essential plant nutrients and which for non-legume crops, such as wheat, normally must be supplied by applications of nitrogen-based fertilizer. So if biotechnology succeeds in producing wheat strains whose roots will play host to Rhizobium bacteria, the need for artificial fertilizers will be reduced.

The argument above makes which one of the following assumptions?

(A) Biotechnology should be directed toward producingplants that do not require artificial fertilizer. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(B) Fixed nitrogen is currently the only soil nutrient that must be supplied by artificialfertilizer for growing wheat crops. - WRONG. Being the only nutrient is not a necessary assumption.

(C) There are no naturally occurring strains of wheat or other grasses that have Rhizobiumbacteria living in their roots. - WRONG. If there are none that have bacteria in their roots then too passage
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Statistics : Posted by unraveled • on 19 Aug 2014, 23:02 • Replies 12 • Views 7805

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