Rhizobium free-living nitrogen fixation occurs in specialized nongrowing cells.
A model for free-living N(2) fixation by Rhizobium sp. RC3200 is presented that asserts that this process occurs in nongrowing cells. Cultures containing mixed populations of cell types, N(2)-fixing and vegetative, grow cooperatively. In nitrogen-limited liquid suspension cultures, cooperative growth occurs by means of ammonium that is produced and exported by nongrowing, N(2)-fixing cells and transported to vegetative cells. This model implies prokaryotic differentiation: the creation of metabolically specialized cells, terminally nonviable, that functionally cooperate in a higher cell order. Here, the switch to a Rhizobium N(2)-fixing cell state is regulated by both O(2) and utilizable nitrogen.
Department of Biology, Thimann Laboratories, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
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Ludwig