Short Oommunications Iron in the Developing Soybean Nodule

Abstract

The metabolism of iron in legume root nodules is of particular interest because of the presence of relatively large amounts of the myoglobin~like pigment, leghaemoglobin. This pigment appears when the nodules are about 2 weeks old and its appearance coincides with the onset of nitrogen fixation. There are also quite large amounts of bacterial cytochromes present (Appleby and Bergersen 1958) and, because of the active metabolism of molecular hydrogen (Hoch, Schneider, and Burris 1960; Bergersen 1963), probably appreciable amounts of ferridoxin as well (Tagawa and Arnon 1962).