1C-08Back
Origin and evolution of nitrogen fixation in prokaryotes
*皮 宏偉
[1]Ph.D. Program in Microbial Genomics, National Chung Hsing University and Academia Sinica. [2]Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. [3]Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago.
The origin of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an important issue in evolution. The prevailing view is that BNF first evolved in archaea and was later transferred to bacteria. However, nitrogen-fixing bacteria are far larger in number and far more diverse in ecological niches. I therefore proposed the bacteria-first hypothesis from analysis of >30,000 prokaryotic genomes. I first identified the six nif genes involved in BNF in all sequenced prokaryotic genomes and then reconstructed phylogenies using the six Nif proteins individually or in combination. The results strongly support the bacteria-first hypothesis.
keywords: nitrogen fixation, nitrogenase, evolution
Origin and evolution of nitrogen fixation in prokaryotes
*Hong-Wei Pi [1,2], Wen-Hsiung Li [2,3]
[1] Ph.D. Program in Microbial Genomics, NCHU and Academia Sinica. [2] Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. [3] Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago.