Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are known for their ability to convert ammonium into nitrogen gas without using oxygen. The chemical compound hydrazine, also used as rocket fuel and the strongest reductant on earth, is central in this process. An international team of microbiologists, including Boran Kartal from Radboud University, now describes the protein that synthesizes hydrazine in anammox in full detail. Nature magazine publishes the results on October 19.
Hydrazine is a highly toxic compound. Until now, anammox is the only organism that is known to synthesize it and use its reducing power in its metabolism. The specific protein responsible for the complicated synthesis of this compound is called hydrazine synthase. Finding the responsible protein was not easy. Boran Kartal, microbiologist at Radboud University says: "This protein is really tricky to work with. It took us about two years to optimize the purification protocol and furthermore, the hydrazine synthesis reaction occurs very slowly."