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biology
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medicine
O
ctopus Spring in Yellowstone genomicists, population biologists,
National Park is one of the evolutionary biologists and physiologists
most inhospitable places on the from Maryland, Montana, Connecticut
22 stanford scientific
biology
with carbon energy in the form of sugar, and oxygen which they This cartoon of the nitrogenase machine depicts the process for +
need for respiration. nitrogen fixation. To produce two molecules of NH3 and one H2 medicine
molecule, the machine takes in, among other things, 16 units of
ATP energy currency.
Nitrogen Fix
Nitrogen is one of the nutrients required by all organisms for
the building blocks of nucleic acids and proteins. Animals (and
carnivorous plants) can directly consume nitrogen by eating foods
that contain it, whereas plants and certain bacteria must reduce or
“fix” atmospheric N2 into larger carbon–containing compounds
in order to assimilate it into their systems. The microbial mat
receives some nitrogen and other required nutrients from organic
material that falls into and decomposes in the steamy waters.
However, it needs far more nitrogen than what is supplied by the
springs.
N2 fixation is a problem for photosynthetic cells, since oxygen
produced during photosynthesis inhibits the function of the
enzyme complex that fixes N2. Because Synechococcus performs The Nitrogenase Machine
photosynthesis, it was widely dismissed as a candidate for N2
fixation. T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6
{
{
(TIGR) sequenced genomes of two different Synechococcus Light Dark
strains, OS-A which can live up to 65°C and OS-B’ which can
live up to 60°C. While these two genomes had similar gene The plot of the light intensity as time progresses shows that as intensity falls
around 50 –100 µmol·m-2·s-1, the nif genes for nitrogen fixation “turn on.”
“It was as if at least one of the consume the oxygen more quickly than it can be produced. The
genomes shattered, and the genes mat quickly becomes depleted of oxygen.
So what does Synechococcus do to survive? The group looked
were put back together in an almost at its gene expression to find out. Surprisingly, they discovered
that since Synechococcus cannot spatially separate photosynthesis
random order.” and N2 fixation, it solves the mat’s photosynthetic and nitrogen-
fixing needs instead by temporally separating these tasks. The
content, the arrangement of the individual genes appeared researchers found that the Synechococcus genome contains a nif
to be “scrambled.” gene cluster - nifH, nifK, nifJ, nifF, and nifD – which encodes
According to Steunou, “Analysis of orthologous genes for nitrogenase, the enzyme needed for N2 fixation. Previous work
revealed that the cyanobacteria were very similar in terms of suggested that Synechococcus growing at the high temperatures
gene content.” However, as coauthor Grossman states, “It of the hot spring mats were not able to fix N2. However, Steunou’s
was as if at least one of the genomes shattered, and the genes group found that while there is no transcription of nif genes
were put back together in an almost random order.” This during the day, the absence of oxygen at night allows the nif
startling difference in genome architecture raises questions transcripts to accumulate and nitrogenase activity can be readily
about the evolution of Synechococcus ecotypes and the measured. Under these conditions, the cyanobacteria are able to
relationships of these ecotypes to other microorganisms in fix atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into ammonia (NH3), the form of
the mat community. nitrogen they require for cell growth.
24 stanford scientific