Nitrogen fixation and photosynthetic oxygen evolution in cyanobacteria

Ilana Berman-Frank; Pernilla Lundgren; Paul Falkowski

doi:10.1016/s0923-2508(03)00029-9

Nitrogen fixation and photosynthetic oxygen evolution in cyanobacteria

Ilana Berman-Frank
, Pernilla Lundgren
, Paul Falkowski

The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences - at Bar-Ilan University

Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
Stockholm University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Short survey › peer-review

417 Scopus citations

Abstract

The biological reduction of N₂ is catalyzed by nitrogenase, which is irreversibly inhibited by molecular oxygen. Cyanobacteria are the only diazotrophs (nitrogen-fixing organisms) that produce oxygen as a by-product of the photosynthetic process, and which must negotiate the inevitable presence of molecular oxygen with an essentially anaerobic enzyme. In this review, we present an analysis of the geochemical conditions under which nitrogenase evolved and examine how the evolutionary history of the enzyme complex corresponds to the physiological, morphological, and developmental strategies for reducing damage by molecular oxygen. Our review highlights biogeochemical constraints on diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the contemporary world.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	157-164
Number of pages	8
Journal	Research in Microbiology
Volume	154
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/s0923-2508(03)00029-9
State	Published - Apr 2003

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Many thanks to John Reinfelder for help with the MINEQL+ calculations of iron speciation in Table 1, to Felisa Wolfe and Costantino Vetriani for generating and analyzing the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 3), Y. Ziv for graphic help, and J. Kasting and anonymous reviewers for critical comments on the manuscript. Support for this research was provided by Rutgers University as a postdoctoral research fellowship (to IBF), and by the National Science Foundation through a Biocomplexity grant to PGF (OCE 0084032).

Funding

Many thanks to John Reinfelder for help with the MINEQL+ calculations of iron speciation in Table 1, to Felisa Wolfe and Costantino Vetriani for generating and analyzing the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 3), Y. Ziv for graphic help, and J. Kasting and anonymous reviewers for critical comments on the manuscript. Support for this research was provided by Rutgers University as a postdoctoral research fellowship (to IBF), and by the National Science Foundation through a Biocomplexity grant to PGF (OCE 0084032).

Funders	Funder number
Rutgers University
National Science Foundation	OCE 0084032

Keywords

Cyanobacteria
Nitrogen fixation
Nitrogenase
Photosynthesis
Trichodesmium

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10.1016/s0923-2508(03)00029-9

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abstract = "The biological reduction of N2 is catalyzed by nitrogenase, which is irreversibly inhibited by molecular oxygen. Cyanobacteria are the only diazotrophs (nitrogen-fixing organisms) that produce oxygen as a by-product of the photosynthetic process, and which must negotiate the inevitable presence of molecular oxygen with an essentially anaerobic enzyme. In this review, we present an analysis of the geochemical conditions under which nitrogenase evolved and examine how the evolutionary history of the enzyme complex corresponds to the physiological, morphological, and developmental strategies for reducing damage by molecular oxygen. Our review highlights biogeochemical constraints on diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the contemporary world.",

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AU - Falkowski, Paul

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N2 - The biological reduction of N2 is catalyzed by nitrogenase, which is irreversibly inhibited by molecular oxygen. Cyanobacteria are the only diazotrophs (nitrogen-fixing organisms) that produce oxygen as a by-product of the photosynthetic process, and which must negotiate the inevitable presence of molecular oxygen with an essentially anaerobic enzyme. In this review, we present an analysis of the geochemical conditions under which nitrogenase evolved and examine how the evolutionary history of the enzyme complex corresponds to the physiological, morphological, and developmental strategies for reducing damage by molecular oxygen. Our review highlights biogeochemical constraints on diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the contemporary world.

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KW - Cyanobacteria

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KW - Photosynthesis

KW - Trichodesmium

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Nitrogen fixation and photosynthetic oxygen evolution in cyanobacteria

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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