Engineering Posttranslational Regulation of Glutamine Synthetase for Controllable Ammonia Production in the Plant Symbiont Azospirillum brasilense.

ABSTRACT: Nitrogen requirements for modern agriculture far exceed the levels of bioavailable nitrogen in most arable soils. As a result, the addition of nitrogen fertilizer is necessary to sustain productivity and yields, especially for cereal crops, the planet's major calorie suppliers. Given the unsustainability of industrial fertilizer production and application, engineering biological nitrogen fixation directly at the roots of plants has been a grand challenge for biotechnology. Here, we designed and tested a potentially broadly applicable metabolic engineering strategy for the overproduction of ammonia in the diazotrophic symbiont Azospirillum brasilense. Our approach is based on an engineered unidirectional adenylyltransferase (uAT) that posttranslationally modifies and deactivates glutamine s

SUBMITTER: Schnabel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8231714 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature