Sandbox Reserved 640: Difference between revisions
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The enzyme needed for nitrogen fixation is nitrogenase. However, this enzyme is inactivated by oxygen, but at the same time, oxygen is needed for the bacteria to reduce nitrogen to ammonia. This ambiguity is explained by the function of Leghemoglobin, which transports oxygen at a low but stable concentration allowing for the symbiotic operation of nitrogenase activity and bacterial respiration. | The enzyme needed for nitrogen fixation is nitrogenase. However, this enzyme is inactivated by oxygen, but at the same time, oxygen is needed for the bacteria to reduce nitrogen to ammonia. This ambiguity is explained by the function of Leghemoglobin, which transports oxygen at a low but stable concentration allowing for the symbiotic operation of nitrogenase activity and bacterial respiration. | ||
==Implications and Applications== | ==Implications and Applications== | ||
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Other nitrogen fixing plants don’t need oxygen, or need very trace amounts, for nitrogen fixation. Some need heterocysts, which are specific nitrogen-fixing cells, and have no need for Leghemoglobin because of its own anti-oxygen evolved state. Examples of what could replace Leghemoglobins are proteins that are specific to scavenging oxygen out of the cells, as well as having multiple cell walls, one of which is a glycolipid, that helps to keep out oxygen (Ref 10). | Other nitrogen fixing plants don’t need oxygen, or need very trace amounts, for nitrogen fixation. Some need heterocysts, which are specific nitrogen-fixing cells, and have no need for Leghemoglobin because of its own anti-oxygen evolved state. Examples of what could replace Leghemoglobins are proteins that are specific to scavenging oxygen out of the cells, as well as having multiple cell walls, one of which is a glycolipid, that helps to keep out oxygen (Ref 10). | ||
[[Image:Nitrogen_Fixation.gif|120p]] | |||
==Structure== | ==Structure== | ||
