📝 Online now - the Review "Functional insights into the nitrogenase-like enzyme superfamily" from Johannes Rebelein and colleagues.

#Nitrogenase #Metalloproteins #NitrogenFixation #Methanogenesis #SulfurScavenging

Read it here: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Functional insights into the nitrogenase-like enzyme superfamily Nitrogenases are the only enzymes capable of converting atmospheric nitrogen into bioavailable ammonia, an essential process for all life on Earth. Early ancestors of bona fide nitrogenases and their ...

Functional insights into the nitrogenase-like enzyme superfamily
#nitrogen #nitrogenase
www.cell.com/trends/bioch...

Our latest work on the nitrogenase-like methylthio-alkane reductase, which specifically reduces reduces carbon-sulfide bonds is now out @natcatal.nature.com: doi.org/10.1038/s419.... We find for the first time large #nitrogenase metalloclusters (P- and L-cluster) outside nitrogenases.

Structural evolution of nitrogenase over 3 billion years
#nitrogenase #evolution #microbiology
@elife.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/105...

A timeline of the Earth's oceans, showing the availability of trace metals, oxidation state, and constraints on the evolutionary development of Mo-, Fe-, and V-nitrogenases, from the Archean to the present. From Rucker and Kaçar, 2024, Trends in Microbiology.

Today, molybdenum is one of the most common trace elements in the ocean due to oxidative weathering of #Molybdenite. But in the Archean the oceans were reducing, and molybdenum was scarce.

Other nitrogenases evolved to use other transition elements, but […]

[Original post on fosstodon.org]

A model of the Fe-Mo-Cofactor nitrogenase from Jiménez-Vicente et al, 2015 A complex molecule with a cage of iron and sulfur atoms connected to an organic chain via a molybdenum atom (grey).

#Molybdenite is the primary host for the element molybdenum in the Earth's crust.

Molybdenum is part of the most effective biological molecule for nitrogen fixation (Mo-nitrogenase), which converts atmospheric N2 to a bio-available form.

The grey sphere is Mo […]

[Original post on fosstodon.org]

It’s been both challenging and rewarding to piece together this story and I look forward to the conversations and discoveries that this sparks in the community. Onto the next one!
#postdoc #nitrogenase #cryoEM

Fresh from the press! 📰Check out the article by Dr. Johannes Rebelein @rebeleinlab.bsky.social on page 29: 'From waste to valuable materials'.
#sustainability #carboncapture #nitrogenase

Heterologous synthesis of a simplified nitrogenase analog in Escherichia coli Heterologous synthesis of a nitrogenase analog (NifH/NifEN) in E. coli enables N2 reduction and incorporation of N into biomass.

Exciting work by Ribbe & Hu lab demonstrating the in vivo reduction of N2 by L-cluster containing Nif(EN)2 inside E. coli: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... This finding suggests a smaller minimal gene set for the heterologous expression of #nitrogenase and an easier route to synthetic #N2-fixation

TIME100 Climate 2024: Ester Baiget Find out why Ester Baiget made the 2024 TIME100 Climate list

🌱 Nitrogen-fixing enzymes = sustainable farming!
#Nitrogenase enzymes replace traditional fertilizers, reducing runoff and keeping nitrogen in the soil for crops to use. Read an exclusive interview with a CEO about #enzyme innovation for sustainable agriculture 🌿👉 time.com/7172409/este...

This is an excellent explanation about the implications of finding #nitrogenase #metalloclusters in the MCR activation complex

Structural basis for the conformational protection of nitrogenase from O2 | Nature The low reduction potentials required for the reduction of dinitrogen (N2) render metal-based nitrogen-fixation catalysts vulnerable to irreversible damage by dioxygen (O2)1–3. Such O2 sensitivity represents a major conundrum for the enzyme nitrogenase, as a large fraction of nitrogen-fixing organisms are either obligate aerobes or closely associated with O2-respiring organisms to support the high energy demand of catalytic N2 reduction4. To counter O2 damage to nitrogenase, diazotrophs use O2 scavengers, exploit compartmentalization or maintain high respiration rates to minimize intracellular O2 concentrations4–8. A last line of damage control is provided by the ‘conformational protection’ mechanism9, in which a [2Fe:2S] ferredoxin-family protein termed FeSII (ref. 10) is activated under O2 stress to form an O2-resistant complex with the nitrogenase component proteins11,12. Despite previous insights, the molecular basis for the conformational O2 protection of nitrogenase and the mecha

Enzyme nitrogenase reduces N2 but is O2-sensitive. Study deciphers structure, explaining how it protects itself. Key for aerobic N-fixation. #Nitrogenase 🚀 PMID:39779844, Nature 2025, @Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08311-1 #Medsky #Pharmsky #RNA #ASHG #ESHG 🧪

Had a blast at VAAM 2025 in Bochum @vaam-microbes.bsky.social. Holly Addison and Frederik Schmidt gave fantastic talks about our work electron transport to #nitrogenase and nitrogenase #catalysis

Nitrogen for nothing and your protein for free More than half of the protein within our body can be directly traced to a process invented more than 100 years ago by two German chemists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch. The Haber-Bosch process artificia...

#Nitrogen for nothing and your #protein for free.

#nitrogen_fixation #nitrogenase #bacteria #mightymicrobes #food_security #bioengineering #DNA #mitochondria #plants #agriculture

phys.org/news/2025-03...

7) This was an exciting study led by Sarah Narehood in collaboration with Suppachai Srisantitham, Vanessa Eng, Angela Shiau, Kelly McGuire, David Britt. #cryoEM #cryoSPARC #Nitrogenase #HerizkLab @nature.com @sptlabtech.bsky.social @structurabio.bsky.social #UCSDChemBioChem #anaerobicEM

Structural comparison of (hyper-)thermophilic #nitrogenase reductases from 3 marine #Methanococcales: Get the first structural insights into #NifH from these #methanogens!

doi.org/10.1111/febs...

Out now by Nevena Maslac, Tristan Wagner et al in The FEBS Journal

Great job Madeline!! Two years in the making!! I hope the reviewers will be kind! #rawlab #teamraw #nitrogenase

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Original post on mastodon.social

I may as well inaugurate my mastodon profile with my post on the crazy history behind #nitrogen N≡N — the wars fought ⛷️, poo mined 🐦 , and science pioneered 🔎 in the quest to sequester it from air to soil:

keiran-rowell.github.io/nitrogen-fixation/2023-0... […]