Abstract:

Nitrogenase is a complex metalloenzyme responsible for converting nitrogen gas (N2) to bioavailable ammonia (NH3) under ambient conditions to ammonia, a transformation traditionally facilitated by industrial Haber-Bosch process under high temperature and pressure (≈450 °C, >200 atm). The iron protein of nitrogenase is one of two components and plays a key role as a reductase component to transfer electrons to the catalytic component of enzyme. Moreover, it has been discovered that iron protein can reduce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide to short-chain hydrocarbons. This work focuses on the generation of a library of iron protein homologs that can be used as a toolbox for mechanistic investigations and to facilitate the heterologous expression of functional nitrogenase based systems.