Increasing Extracellular Nitrogen Production By Azotobacter Vinelandii dj

In photosynthetic organisms, nitrogen is the most expensive and limiting nutrient input. Traditionally, nitrogen fertilizer has been produced by energy intensive methods such as the Haber-Bosch process. Our research aims to provide alternative means of producing the required nitrogen for photosynthetic crops. Azotobacter vinelandii DJ is a model diazotrophic and aerobic bacterium which can be genetically manipulated to increase its extracellular nitrogen production. Here we have performed insertional transposon mutagenesis on A. vinelandii DJ in tandem with two facilitated screens to identify the nitrogen producing phenotype. Facilitated screens involved the use of a novel biosensor strain developed by our lab and the co-culture with various algal species. Here we present the mutants identified using the methods described as well as the characterization and quantification of the nitrogen products resultant of each mutation.