The remarkable Zymomonas mobilis

The bacterium Zymomonas mobilis can convert atmospheric nitrogen gas into ammonium, researchers at the University of Indiana have found. Their results were published in PNAS this week (February 2).

“It was known already that the Zymomonas genome contains all the genes that are needed, but nobody had checked whether they really are able to fix nitrogen,” said Uldis Kalnenieks of the University of Latvia who was not involved in the research.

“The genes might have been there and annotated in the past, but this [study] now enables perhaps the industrial side to develop it,” said Steve Brown of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who also was not involved in the work. “This opens the door to further studies in this system so I think that’s a pretty exciting result.”

For further details, see The Scientist

Posted by Tim Sandle