nucleic acids
Prokaryotes and the Nitrogen Cycle Nitrogen is a very important element for life because it is part of proteins and nucleic acids. It is a macronutrient, and in nature, it is recycled from organic compounds to ammonia, ammonium ions, nitrate, nitrite, and nitrogen gas by myriad processes, many of which are carried out only by prokaryotes. As illustrated in Figure 22.19, prokaryotes are key to the nitrogen cycle. The largest pool of nitrogen available in the terrestrial ecosystem is gaseous nitrogen from the air, but this nitrogen is not usable by plants, which are primary producers. Gaseous nitrogen is transformed, or fixed into more readily available forms such as ammonia through the process of nitrogen fixation. Ammonia can be used by plants or converted to other forms. Another source of ammonia is ammonification, the process by which ammonia is released during the decomposition of nitrogen-containing organic compounds. Ammonia released to the atmosphere, however, represents only 15 percent of the total nitrogen released; the rest is as N2 and N2O. Ammonia is catabolized anaerobically by some prokaryotes, yielding N2 as the final product. Nitrification is the conversion of ammonium to nitrite and nitrate. Nitrification in soils is carried out by bacteria belonging to the genera Nitrosomas, Nitrobacter, and Nitrospira. The bacteria performs the reverse process, the reduction of nitrate from the soils to gaseous compounds such as N2O, NO, and N2, a process called denitrification.