The iron nitrogenase reduces carbon dioxide to formate and methane under physiological conditions: A route to feedstock chemicals.

ABSTRACT: Nitrogenases are the only known enzymes that reduce molecular nitrogen (N₂) to ammonia. Recent findings have demonstrated that nitrogenases also reduce the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂), suggesting CO₂ to be a competitor of N₂. However, the impact of omnipresent CO₂ on N₂ fixation has not been investigated to date. Here, we study the competing reduction of CO₂ and N₂ by the two nitrogenases of Rhodobacter capsulatus, the molybdenum and the iron nitrogenase. The iron nitrogenase is almost threefold more efficient in CO₂ reduction and profoundly less selective for N₂ than the molybdenum isoform under mixtures of N₂ and CO₂. Correspondingly, the grow

SUBMITTER: Oehlmann NN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11323892 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature