Azotobacter vinelandii: the source of 100 years of discoveries and many more to come

Abstract

Azotobacter vinelandii has been studied for over 100 years since its discovery as an aerobic nitrogen-fixing organism. This species has proved useful for the study of many different biological systems, including enzyme kinetics and the genetic code. It has been especially useful in working out the structures and mechanisms of different nitrogenase enzymes, how they can function in oxic environments and the interactions of nitrogen fixation with other aspects of metabolism. Interest in studying A. vinelandii has waned in recent decades, but this bacterium still possesses great potential for new discoveries in many fields and commercial applications. The species is of interest for research because of its genetic pliability and natural competence. Its features of particular interest to industry are its ability to produce multiple valuable polymers - bioplastic and alginate in particular; its nitrogen-fixing prowess, which could reduce the need for synthetic fertilizer in agriculture and industrial fermentations, via coculture; its production of potentially useful enzymes and metabolic pathways; and even its biofuel production abilities. This review summarizes the history and potential for future research using this versatile microbe.

Development and Application of Low-Cost and Eco-Sustainable Bio-Stimulant Containing a New Plant Growth-Promoting Strain Kosakonia pseudosacchari TL13

“…It is known that some PGPB can fix atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium, and consequently increase the availability of this nutrient in the rhizosphere. The use of these microorganisms in agriculture could decrease the use of chemical N-based fertilizers and therefore their negative impact on the environment as soil quality depletion, pollution and human health ( Noar and Bruno-Bárcena, 2018 ). According to previous works in which several Kosakonia species were described as N 2 -fixing bacteria ( Chen et al, 2014 ; Chin et al, 2017 ; Sun et al, 2018 ), the new strains K. pseudosacchari TL8 and TL13 were able to produce ammonia and potentially able to fix atmospheric nitrogen due to the presence of the nif H gene encoding nitrogenase reductase enzyme.…”

A quantitative model of nitrogen fixation in the presence of ammonium

“…As a step towards developing a quantitative, prognostic framework for modeling nitrogen fixation in diverse environments, here we bring together a quantitative model of the nitrogen fixing bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii [40] and published data from laboratory studies [34,41] in which it was grown in continuous culture with a sucrose and ammonium-based medium. We choose to develop the model around this system because Azotobacter vinelandii is a well-studied model organism (studied over a century [42]) and because the laboratory studies [34,41] are sufficient to quantitatively test and constrain a dynamic model of an organism using both N 2 and ammonium under a variety of environmental conditions.…”

Productivity and scale‐up of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) production under different oxygen transfer conditions in cultures of Azotobacter vinelandii

“…PHB is a biopolymer produced by various microorganisms during fermentation under nutrient‐limiting conditions 2,3 . One promising PHB producer is Azotobacter vinelandii , a strictly aerobic, Gram‐negative soil bacterium that naturally synthetizes two industrially relevant biopolymers, alginate and PHB 4 . In A. vinelandii , PHB accumulation is favored by unbalanced growth conditions occurring through an excess of carbon sources under an O 2 ‐limited environment.…”