IDENTIFICATION OF nif GENES AND RECONSTRUCTION OF NITROGEN FIXING NETWORK OF Pseudomonas putida

ISSAR S.¹, CHOUDHARY D.K.², GAUTAM H.K.³, GAUR R.K.^4
1Dept. of Science, Faculty of Arts, Science and Commerce, MITS University, Lakshmangarh- 332 311, Rajasthan, India.
²Dept. of Science, Faculty of Arts, Science and Commerce, MITS University, Lakshmangarh- 332 311, Rajasthan, India.
³Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Mall Road, New Delhi- 110 007, India.
⁴Dept. of Science, Faculty of Arts, Science and Commerce, MITS University, Lakshmangarh- 332 311, Rajasthan, India.

Received : 27-11-2012     Accepted : 05-09-2013     Published : 21-12-2013
Volume : 1     Issue : 2       Pages : 24 - 28
World Res J Biotechnol 1.2 (2013):24-28

Several sp. of Pseudomonas are recently included in the list of nitrogen fixers, on the basis of physiological properties and nitrogenase assays. Here, we report information regarding the cluster of nif genes in Psuedomonas putida MB-L using nif H, nif D and nif K degenerate primers based PCR amplification assays and southern hybridization using the nif probes derived from plasmids containing the fragment of nif HBKTY from K. pneumoniae. Further, we reconstructed the nitrogen metabolism network using Cytoscape software 2.7.0 and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) biological database. Our results reveal several enzymatic similarities with the Rhizobium leguminosarum, implying its utility for the improvement and development of economically important crops. This framework provides a novel model to explore the metabolism of P. putida, besides contributing useful information regarding plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere.