Nitrogen Fixation in Rhodobacter Capsulatus


Nitrogen is often a limiting nutrient for the growth of plants and microorganisms. The Kranz lab studies how genes responsible for nitrogen fixation are regulated in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus. Using a lacZ gene fused to a gene involved in nitrogen regulation, the figure shows that this gene is only expressed (blue color) when nitrogen is needed, namely in the absence of NH3 in the medium.

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