Leghemoglobin

Leghemoglobin (also leghaemoglobin or legoglobin) is a nitrogen or oxygen carrier and hemoprotein found in the nitrogen-fixing root nodules of leguminous plants. It is produced by legumes in response to the roots being colonized by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, termed rhizobia, as part of the symbiotic interaction between plant and bacterium: roots not colonized by Rhizobium do not synthesise leghemoglobin. Leghemoglobin has close chemical and structural similarities to hemoglobin, and, like hemoglobin, is red in colour. The holoprotein (protein + heme cofactor) is widely believed to be a product of both plant and the bacterium in which the apoprotein is produced by the plant and the heme (an iron atom bound in a porphyrin ring) is produced by the bacterium. Some evidence, however, suggests that the heme moiety is also produced by the plant.

In plants colonised by Rhizobium, such as alfalfa or soybeans, the presence of oxygen in the root nodules would reduce the activity of the oxygen-sensitive nitrogenase – an enzyme responsible for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Leghemoglobin buffers the concentration of free oxygen in the cytoplasm of infected plant cells to ensure the proper function of root nodules. Leghemoglobin has a high affinity for oxygen (K_m ~ 0.01 µM), about ten times higher than the β chain of human hemoglobin. This allows an oxygen concentration that is low enough to allow nitrogenase to function, but high enough that it can provide the bacteria with oxygen for respiration.

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