ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2013
New insights into the evolutionary history of biological nitrogen fixation.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 98 papers.
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Who cites it
98 citing papers in PubMed, 241 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular basis of NNature communications · 2026Article
- Rhizosphere Diazotrophs in Acidic Agroecosystems: An Evidence-Chain and Microbiome-Compatibility Framework for Stabilizing Crop Growth Promotion.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Function, Structure, and Regulation of Nitrogen Fixation-like Metalloproteins for Nitrogen, Energy, Carbon, and Sulfur Metabolism.Chemical reviews · 2026Review
- Harnessing Nitrogen-Fixing and Phosphate-Mobilizing Bacteria for Sustainable Agriculture.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Predicting compatibility between ferredoxins and the Fe protein of nitrogenase using in silico protein modeling.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2026Article
- Resurrected nitrogenases recapitulate canonical N-isotope biosignatures over two billion years.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Aspen-associated soil microbiomes reveal different strategies for nitrogen acquisition across ecosystems in Mexico and Canada.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Cross-Feeding of Carbon and Nitrogen Between Aquificales and Thermus in Hot Springs.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Review
- The hidden potential of archaea in carbon and nitrogen cycling in agricultural soils: a review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Computationally Guided Design of a Soluble, Abundant and Functional AnfH Variant for the Expression of Fe-Only Nitrogenase in Plant Mitochondria.Plant biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Exploring diazotrophic diversity: unveiling Nif core distribution and evolutionary patterns in nitrogen-fixing organisms.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- NifFinder: improved Nif protein prediction using SWeeP vectors and neural networks.Bioinformatics advances · 2025Article
- Article
- Methylthio-alkane reductases use nitrogenase metalloclusters for carbon-sulfur bond cleavage.Nature catalysis · 2025Article
- Nitrogen fixation by methanogenic Archaea, literature review and DNA database-based analysis; significance in face of climate change.Archives of microbiology · 2024Review
- Iron-molybdenum cofactor synthesis by a thermophilic nitrogenase devoid of the scaffold NifEN.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Nitrogen-Fixing Gamma ProteobacteriaMicroorganisms · 2024Review
- Alternative sources of molybdenum for Methanococcus maripaludis and their implication for the evolution of molybdoenzymes.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Co-evolution of early Earth environments and microbial life.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2024Review
38 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nitrogenase, which catalyzes the ATP-dependent reduction of dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3), accounts for roughly half of the bioavailable nitrogen supporting extant life. The fundamental requirement for fixed forms of nitrogen for life on Earth, both at present and in the past, has led to broad and significant interest in the origin and evolution of biological N2 fixation. One key question is whether the limited availability of fixed nitrogen was a factor in life's origin or whether there were ample sources of fixed nitrogen produced by abiotic processes or delivered through the weathering of bolide impact materials to support this early life. If the latter, the key questions become what were the characteristics of the environment that precipitated the evolution of this oxygen sensitive process, when did this occur, and how was its subsequent evolutionary history impacted by the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis and the rise of oxygen in the Earth's biosphere. Since the availability of fixed sources of nitrogen capable of supporting early life is difficult to glean from the geologic record, there are limited means to get direct insights into these questions. Indirect insights, however, can be gained through phylogenetic studies of nitrogenase structural gene products and additional gene products involved in the biosynthesis of the complex metal-containing prosthetic groups associated with this enzyme complex. Insights gained from such studies, as reviewed herein, challenge traditional models for the evolution of biological nitrogen fixation and provide the basis for the development of new conceptual models that explain the stepwise evolution of this highly complex life sustaining process.
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