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Elevated Levels Of External Cysteine Inhibit Nitrogen Fixation By The Methanogenic Archaeon Methanosarcina Acetivorans, Regan Massey
Elevated Levels Of External Cysteine Inhibit Nitrogen Fixation By The Methanogenic Archaeon Methanosarcina Acetivorans, Regan Massey
Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses
Methanogens are nitrogen fixing and methane producing archaea that play a key role in the cycling of carbon and nitrogen on earth. The global carbon and nitrogen cycle is vital to all life which makes the methanogen a primary organism of study. Methanogens are the only archaea capable of fixing nitrogen, and in order to do so, methanogens use a vital enzyme called the nitrogenase which fixes dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3). Expanding our understanding on metabolic processes of methanogens allows us to understand their environmental impact and advance their use in biotechnological applications. Methanosarcina acetivorans is the model used …
Exploring Nitrogen Fixation In Methanosarcina Acetivorans, Rylee Cook
Exploring Nitrogen Fixation In Methanosarcina Acetivorans, Rylee Cook
Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses
As of 2016, the genomes of over sixty species of methanogenic archaea have been sequenced.4 Research on the genomes of methanogens such as M. acetivorans led to the characterization of numerous genes with unknown functions. Genes similar to those of nitrogenase have been shown to possess functions unrelated to nitrogen fixation, such as F430 biosynthesis genes. 5,6,7 My research focused on the uncharacterized gene clusters ma2032-33 and ma1631-33 (Figure 1). These genes have conserved nitrogenase domains: ma2032 has fused nifH and nifD domains, while ma2033 has a nifD domain. The ma1631-33 gene cluster contains two nitrogenase homologs and one iron …