Abstract
Nitrogen fixation is the reduction of molecular dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia. This process, along with nitrate reduction, brings nitrogen from inorganic form into the organic world, for ammonia is the form of nitrogen which can be assimilated into amino acids. Fixed nitrogen is generated chemically by the Haber process, in which gaseous nitrogen and hydrogen are combined at high temperature and pressure to yield ammonia. This industrial process provides most of the ammonium fertilizer used in agriculture, and consumes vast amounts of petrochemical fuel every year (Postgate, 1982).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banfalvi, Z., Sakanyan, V., Koncz, C., Kiss, A., Dusha, I. and Kondorosi, A., 1981, Location of nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes on a high molecular weight plasmid of R. meliloti, Mol. Gen. Genet., 184:318–325.
Bauer, W.D., 1981, Infection of legumes by Rhizobia, Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol., 32:407–449.
Bedmar, E.J., Edie, S.A. and Phillips, D.A., 1983, Host plant cultivar effects on hydrogen evolution by Rhizobium leguminosarum, Plant Physiol., 72 (suppl.):432.
Beringer, J.E., Brewin, N.J., and Johnston, A.W.B., 1980, The genetic analysis of Rhizobium in relation to symbiotic nitrogen fixation, Heredity, 45:161–186.
Beynon, J.L., Beringer, J.E., and Johnston, A.W.B., 1980, Plasmids and host range in Rhizobium leguminosarumand Rhizobium phaseoli, J. Gen. Microbiol., 120:421–430.
Bohlool, B., Kosslak, R., and Woolfenden, R., 1983, The ecology of Rhizobiumin the rhizosphere: survival, growth and competition, in:“Advances in Nitrogen Fixation,” C. Veeger and W.E. Newton, eds., pp. 287–294, Nijhoff/Junk, Boston.
Buikema, W.J., Long, S.R., Brown, S.E., van den Bos, R., Earl, C. and Ausubel, F.M. (1983) Physical and genetic characterization of Rhizobium melilotisymbiotic mutants, J. Molec. Appl. Genet., 2:240–260.
Callaham, D., del Tredici, P. and Torry, J.G., 1978, Isolation and cultivation in vitroof the actinomycete causing root nodulation in Comptonia., Science, 199:899–902.
Cannon, F.C., Reidel, G.E., and Ausubel, F.M., 1979, Overlap** sequences of Klebsiella pneumoniae nifDNA cloned and characterised, Molec. Gen. Genet., 174:59–66.
Corbin, D., Ditta, G., and Helinski, D., 1982, Clustering of nitrogen fixation (nif) genes in Rhizobium meliloti, J. Bacteriol. 149:221–228.
Dart, P., 1974, The infection process, in“Biology of nitrogen fixation”, A. Quispel, ed., pp. 381–429, North-Holland, Amsterdam
Dazzo, F.B. and Hubbell, D. 1982, Control of root hair infection. in “Nitrogen fixation, vo1.2: Rhizobium,” W. Broughton, ed., pp. 275–309, Oxford.
Denarie, J., Boistard, P., Casse-Delbart, F., Atherley, A.G., Berry, J.O. and Russell, P., 1981, Indigenous plasmids of Rhizobium, in“Biology of the Rhizobiaceae,” K. Giles and A. Atherley, eds., pp. 225–246, Academic Press, New York.
Ditta, G., Stanfield, S., Corbin, D., and Helinski, D., 1980, Broad host range DNA cloning system for Gram negative bacteria: construction of a gene bank of Rhizobium meliloti. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 77:7347–7351.
Djordevic, M., Zurkowski, W., Shine, J., and Rolfe, B.G., 1984, Sym-plasmid transfer to various symbiotic mutants of Rhizobium trifolii, R. leguminosarum, and R. meliloti. J. Bacteriol. 156:1035–1045.
Downie, J.A., Hombrecher, G., Ma, Q.-S., Knight, C., Wells, B., and Johnston, A.W.B., 1983, Cloning of the symbiotic region of Rhizobium leguminosarum: the nodulation genes are between the nitrogenase genes and a nifA-like gene, Embo J., 2:947–952.
Hennecke, H., 1981, Recombinant plasmids carrying nitrogen fixation genes from Rhizobium japonicum, Nature, 291:354–355.
Imsande, J., 1981, Exchange of metabolites and energy between legume and Rhizobium, in:“Biology of the Rhizobiaceae,” K. Giles, and A. Atherly, eds., pp. 179–189, Academic Press, N.Y.
Johnston, A.W.B., Beynon, J.L., Buchanan-Wollaston, A.V., Setchell, S.M., Hirsch, P.R., and Beringer, J.E., 1978, High frequency transfer of nodulatiog ability between strains and species of Rhizobium, Nature, 276:635–636.
Jordan, D.C., 1982, Transfer of Rhizobium japonicumto Bradyrhizobium, Intl. J. Syst. Bacteriol., 32:136–139.
Long, S.R., Meade, H.M., Brown, S.E. and Ausubel, F.M., 1981, Transposon-induced symbiotic mutants of Rhizobium meliloti, in:“Genetic engineering in the plant sciences,” N. Panopoulos, ed., pp. 129–143, Praeger, New York.
Long, S.R., Buikema, W.E., and Ausubel, F.M., 1982, Cloning of Rhizobium melilotinodulation genes by direct complementation of Nod- mutants, Nature, 298:485–488.
Long, S.R., 1984, Nodulation genetics, in: “Plant-microbe interactions,” E. Nester and T. Kosuge, eds., Macmillan, New York, in press.
Ma, Q.-S., Johnston, A.W.B., Hombrecher, G., and Downie, J.A., 1982, Molecular genetics of mutants of Rhizobium leguminosarum which fail to fix nitrogen, Mol. Gen. Genet., 187:166–171.
Meade, H.M., Long, S.R., Ruvkun, G.B., Brown, S.E., and Ausubel, F.M., 1982, Physical and genetic characterization of symbiotic and auxotrophic mutants of Rhizobium melilotiinduced by transposon Tn5mutagenesis, J. Bacteriol., 149:114–122.
Newcomb, W. 1981, Nodule morphogenesis and differentiation, in“Biology of the Rhizobiaceae,” eds. Giles, K. and Atherly, A., pp. 247–298, Academic Press, New York.
Paau, A., Leps, W. and Brill, W., 1981, Agglutinin from alfalfa necessary for binding and nodulation by Rhizobium meliloti, Science, 213:1513–1515.
Peters, G.A. and Mayne, B.C., 1974, The Azolla-Anabaena azollae relationship. I: Initial characterization of the association, Plant Physiol., 53:813–819.
Pierce, M. and Bauer, W.D., 1983, A rapid regulatory response governing nodulation in soybean, Plant Physiol, 73:286–290.
Postgate, J., 1982, “The fundamentals of nitrogen fixation,” Cambridge Press, Cambridge.
Quinto, C., de la Vega, H., Flores, M., Fernandez, L., Ballado, T., Soberon, G., and Palacios, R., 1982, Reinteration of nitrogen fixation gene sequences in Rhizobium phaseoli, Nature299:724–726.
Robson, R., Kennedy, C., and Postgate, J., 1983, Progress in comparative genetics of nitrogen fixation, Can. J. Microbiol., 29:954–967.
Rosenberg, C., Boistard, P., Denarie, J., and Casse-Delbart, F., 1981, Genes controlling early and late function in symbiosis are located on a megaplasmid in Rhizobium meliloti. Mol. Gen. Genet., 194:326–333.
Ruvkun, G.B. and Ausubel, F.M., 1980, Interspecies homology of nitrogenase genes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 77:191–195.
Ruvkun, G.B. and Ausubel, F.M., 1981, A general method for site-directed mutagenesis in prokaryotes, Nature, 289:75–78.
Ruvkun, G.B., Sundaresan, V. and Ausubel, F.M., 1982, Site-directed transposon Tn5 mutagenesis and complementation analysis of the Rhizobium melilotisymbiotic nitrogen fixation (nif) genes, Cell, 29:551–559.
Scott, K.F., Hughes, J.E., Gresshoff, P.M., Beringer, J.E., Rolfe, B.G., and Shine, J., 1982, Molecular cloning of Rhizobium trifoliigenes involved in symbiotic nitrogen fixation, J. Molec. Appl. Genet., 1:315–326.
Sprent, J., 1979, The biology of nitrogen-fixing organisms. McGraw-Hill, London.
Sutton, W.D., Pankhurst, C.E., and Craig, A.S., 1981, The Rhizobium bacteroid state, in:“Biology of the Rhizobiaceae,” K. Giles and A. Atherly, eds., pp. 149–177, Academic Press, New York.
Verma, D.P.S. and Long, S.R., 1983, The molecular biology of Rhizobium-legume symbiosis, in: “Intracellular Symbioses,” K. Jeon, ed., pp. 211–243, Academic Press, New York.
Vincent, J.M., 1980, Factors controlling the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis. in“Nitrogen fixation, vol. II: symbiotic associations and cyanobacteria,” W.E. Newton and W.H. Orme-Johnson, eds., Park Press, Baltimore.
Zimmerman, J.L., Szeto, W. and Ausubel, F.M., 1984, Molecular characterization of Tn5-induced symbiotic (Fix-) mutants of Rhizobium meliloti, J. Bacteriol., 156:1025–1034.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1984 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Long, S.R. (1984). Genetic Aspects of Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation. In: Gustafson, J.P. (eds) Gene Manipulation in Plant Improvement. Stadler Genetics Symposia Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2429-4_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2429-4_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9478-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-2429-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive