Biochemistry of Nitrogen Fixation
Luis Manuel Rubio Herrero (PI)
CSIC Researcher
Technical University of Madrid and Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics, Madrid, Spain
Other group members
Research lines
- Nitrogenase bioengineering in plants and yeast
- Structure-function studies on nitrogenase iron-molybdenum cofactor biosynthesis
Representative publications
Payá-Tormo L, Echavarri-Erasun C, Makarovsky-Saavedra N, Pérez-González A, Yang Z.-Y, Guo Y, Seefeldt LC, Rubio LM (2024) Iron-molybdenum cofactor synthesis by a thermophilic nitrogenase devoid of the scaffold NifEN. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 121, e2406198121
Dobrzyńska K, Pérez-González A, Echavarri-Erasun C, Coroian D, Salinero-Lanzarote A, Veldhuizen M, Dean DR, Burén S, Rubio LM (2023) Nitrogenase cofactor biosynthesis using proteins produced in mitochondria of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. mBio. 15, e03088-23
Jiang X, Coroian D, Barahona E, Echavarri-Erasun C, Castellanos-Rueda R, Eseverri Á, Aznar-Moreno JA, Burén S, Rubio LM (2022) Functional Nitrogenase Cofactor Maturase NifB in Mitochondria and Chloroplasts of Nicotiana benthamiana. Mbio. 13, e00268-22
Fajardo AS, Legrand P, Payá-Tormo L, Martin L, Pellicer Martı́nez MT, Echavarri-Erasun C, Vernède X, Rubio LM, Nicolet Y (2020) Structural insights into the mechanism of the radical SAM carbide synthase NifB, a key nitrogenase cofactor maturating enzyme. J Am Chem Soc 142: 11006-11012.
Eseverri Á, López-Torrejón G, Jiang X, Burén S, Rubio LM, Caro E (2020) Use of synthetic biology tools to optimize the production of active nitrogenase Fe protein in chloroplasts of tobacco leaf cells. Plant Biotech J 18: 1882-1896.
Burén S, Jiménez-Vicente E, Echavarri-Erasun C, Rubio LM (2020) Biosynthesis of Nitrogenase Cofactors. Chem Rev 120: 4921-4968.
Burén S, Pratt K, Jiang X, Guo Y, Jimenez-Vicente E, Echavarri-Erasun C, Dean DR, Saaem I, Gordon DB, Voigt CA, Rubio LM (2019) Biosynthesis of the nitrogenase active-site cofactor precursor NifB-co in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 116: 25078-25086.
Burén S, Young EM, Sweeny EA, Lopez-Torrejón G, Veldhuizen M, Voigt CA, Rubio LM (2017) Formation of nitrogenase NifDK tetramers in the mitochondria of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. ACS Synth Biol 6: 1043-1055.
López-Torrejón G, Jiménez-Vicente E, Buesa JM, Hernandez JA, Verma HK, Rubio LM (2016) Expression of a functional oxygen-labile nitrogenase component in the mitochondrial matrix of aerobically grown yeast. Nat. Commun. 7, 11426
Grants
- Rubio LM (IP) (2024-2028) BNF Cereals Phase IV. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. INV-067006.
- Rubio LM (IP) (2022-2025) Formación del centro hierro-azufre del cofactor catalítico de la nitrogenasa. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. PID2021-128802OB-100.
Relevant methods
- Nitrogenase activity assays
- Anaerobic biochemistry
- In vitro synthesis of protein metal cofactors
- Purification and analysis of metalloproteins
- Synthetic biology in bacteria, yeast and plants
- Bacteria and yeast fermentations
- Protein-protein and protein-metal interactions
Collaborations with other national and international research groups
- Dennis Dean (Virginia Tech, USA)
- Christopher Voigt (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
- Leonardo Curatti (FIBA, Argentina)
- Yvain Nicolet (Institut de Biologie Structurale, Francia)
- Lance Seefeldt (Utah State, USA)
- Yisong Guo (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
- Mario Piccioli (CERM, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italia)
- Eva Kondorosi (Biological Research Centre, Szeged, Hungría)
- Manuel González Guerrero, Juan Imperial (Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Madrid)
- Olivier Keech (Umea University, Sweden)
