Nitrogen Fixation, The Roles of Archaea and Bacteria

Certain bacteria and archaea are responsible for biological nitrogen fixation. Metabolic pathways usually are common between archaea and bacteria. Nitrogen fixation is energetically expensive because it consumes 16 moles of ATP per mole of N fixed. Paying more attention on biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) has increased by growing concern about sustainability of agricultural production by considering population growth, environment and energy. Biological nitrogen fixation carried out by diazotrophs converts atmospheric N2 to plant available ammonium. Community structure and diversity of diazotrophic are correlated with soil pH. All known organisms which involve in nitrogen-fixing which are called diazatrophs are prokaryotes, and both bacterial and archaeal domains are responsible for that.