Biochemistry and genetics of Klebsiella pneumoniae mutant strains unable to fix N2

Abstract

Selected mutant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae that are unable to fix nitrogen have been characterized according to nitrogenase component activity as well as antigenic cross-reacting material. The lesions in these strains have been mapped by transduction, and the results indicate that there are at least five genes specifically responsible for nitrogen fixation in vivo. Besides genes that specify the structure of the two nitrogenase components, there is a gene for a factor that is required for component I activity and a gene that codes for a factor possibly involved in electron transport to component II. A mutation in another site does not allow the organism to produce either of the nitrogenase components. All of these genes are co-transducible with the gene that specifics the structure of histidinol dehydrogenase.