Nitrogen Fixing Symbiotic Bacteria
Taylor Schweigert
Dr. Sherri Morris
Section 02
The Importance of Nitrogen-fixing Symbiotic Extremophiles Extremophile: a word combination of the Latin extremus (extreme) and Greek philiā (love). Contrary to the average human, extremophiles love the extreme, preferring seemingly uninhabitable environments to resource rich habitats. These archaea are the toughest out there, and are found thriving in deep-sea thermal vents and sub-glacial lakes. A few of the outlandish environmental niches extremophiles have adapted to are high/low temperatures, pH extremes, the absence and excess of oxygen, and high salinity. While all these environments seem very extreme to humans, several extremophiles have invaded other organisms themselves, giving a whole new meaning to the word “extreme”. The species of interest, Rhizobium leguminosarum, falls under the broad group of rhizobia, which are classified as nitrogen-fixing nodules that form on the roots of leguminous plants (Young and Haukka 1996). Rhizobium leguminosarum was the first discovered species of rhizobia, and is classified under the Rhizobiaceae family of the Rhizobium genus. This classification is all part of the alpha subdivision of Proteobacteria. Since rhizobia have such a broad range of organisms in it, it is split up into a total of three genera: Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and Azorhizobium. Rhizobia are similar in the fact that they fix nitrogen symbiotically through root nodules, but diversely distinctive by the specific way they accomplish that means, hence all the different classifications. It was in the year of 1888 that the studies of two German scientists, Hellriegel and Wilfarth, proved that it was the root nodule bacteria that provided nitrogen to their host plants. The next year, Frank (1889) published the nodular symbiont under the name Rhizobium leguminosarum, and it has remained to this day. These studies brought to light the importance of rhizobia and leguminous nitrogen fixation to the
Dr. Sherri Morris
Section 02
The Importance of Nitrogen-fixing Symbiotic Extremophiles Extremophile: a word combination of the Latin extremus (extreme) and Greek philiā (love). Contrary to the average human, extremophiles love the extreme, preferring seemingly uninhabitable environments to resource rich habitats. These archaea are the toughest out there, and are found thriving in deep-sea thermal vents and sub-glacial lakes. A few of the outlandish environmental niches extremophiles have adapted to are high/low temperatures, pH extremes, the absence and excess of oxygen, and high salinity. While all these environments seem very extreme to humans, several extremophiles have invaded other organisms themselves, giving a whole new meaning to the word “extreme”. The species of interest, Rhizobium leguminosarum, falls under the broad group of rhizobia, which are classified as nitrogen-fixing nodules that form on the roots of leguminous plants (Young and Haukka 1996). Rhizobium leguminosarum was the first discovered species of rhizobia, and is classified under the Rhizobiaceae family of the Rhizobium genus. This classification is all part of the alpha subdivision of Proteobacteria. Since rhizobia have such a broad range of organisms in it, it is split up into a total of three genera: Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and Azorhizobium. Rhizobia are similar in the fact that they fix nitrogen symbiotically through root nodules, but diversely distinctive by the specific way they accomplish that means, hence all the different classifications. It was in the year of 1888 that the studies of two German scientists, Hellriegel and Wilfarth, proved that it was the root nodule bacteria that provided nitrogen to their host plants. The next year, Frank (1889) published the nodular symbiont under the name Rhizobium leguminosarum, and it has remained to this day. These studies brought to light the importance of rhizobia and leguminous nitrogen fixation to the
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