The Chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a Testbed for Engineering Nitrogen Fixation into Plants.

ABSTRACT: Eukaryotic organisms such as plants are unable to utilise nitrogen gas (N2) directly as a source of this essential element and are dependent either on its biological conversion to ammonium by diazotrophic prokaryotes, or its supply as chemically synthesised nitrate fertiliser. The idea of genetically engineering crops with the capacity to fix N2 by introduction of the bacterial nitrogenase enzyme has long been discussed. However, the expression of an active nitrogenase must overcome several major challenges: the coordinated expression of multiple genes to assemble an enzyme complex containing several different metal cluster co-factors; the supply of sufficient ATP and reductant to the enzyme; the enzyme's sensitivity to oxygen; and the intracellular accumulation of ammonium. The chloroplas

SUBMITTER: Larrea-Alvarez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8395883 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature