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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #99735
Title: NITROGEN FIXATION

Author
item Kuykendall, Larry
item HASHEM, F - WSL BELTSVILLE MD
item DADSON, ROBERT - UNIV OF MD EASTERN SHORE
item ELKAN, GERALD - NC STATE UNIV RALEIGH NC

Submitted to: Encyclopedia of Microbiology
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Only certain microscopic organisms have the ability to convert gaseous nitrogen into a form utilizable by plants for growth. Nitrogen fixation, as this process is called, is a complex biological reaction requiring a lot of energy to be invested. While industrial or chemical nitrogen fixation consumes about 10% of the available fossil fuel energy, biological nitrogen nfixation uses energy derived from photosynthesis. The most important biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is in legume/Rhizobium symbioses where the most agronomically useful input occurs. BNF is performed in legumes by a wide phylogenetic diversity of microsymbiotic strains known as Rhizobium, Azorhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and Mesorhizobium, to name four genera. This information will be of interest to agronomists, microbiologists, and other professional scientists involved with global resource management and agriculture.

Technical Abstract: This chapter for the 1999 edition of the Encyclopedia of Microbiology discusses the significance of nitrogen fixation. It also describes the specific biochemistry and genetics known of the biological process. The free nitrogen-fixing bacteria, plant-associative nitrogen-fixers, and symbiotic N2-fixing bacteria are described in terms of their biochemical properties, genetics, taxonomy and ecology.