Page 144 - The Miracle of Protein

142 THE MIRACLE OF PROTEIN

from your blood through an enzyme
known as anhydrase. This enzyme
speeds the process by up to 10 mil-
lion times and prevents asphyxia-
61
tion. With similar speeds, enzymes
possess the capacity to effect changes
in 36 million molecules a minute.
Three dimensional view of
Another example is the bacte-
the carbonic anhydrases
ria that serve the plants. Plants are enzyme.
the first living things that remove
the nitrogen from the air. However, they are not able to use the
nitrogen (N ) found in the atmosphere in its gas form. There-
2
-
fore, nitrite bacteria convert nitrogen to nitrite (NO ), and ni-
2
-
trite in turn is converted to nitrate (NO ) by nitrate bacteria.
3
Now the plants can use it. If it hadn’t been for these conver-
sions, the plants wouldn't be able to synthesize proteins, and
there would be no life on earth. The enzyme ‘nitrogenase’ cat-
alyzes this transformation and allows nitrogen to be presented
to the plants as a ready-to-use fertilizer. In order to do the same
thing in a factory, a temperature of 400°C and an atmospheric
pressure of 200 -350 bar would be required. Factories spend large
sums of money to fix 27 million tons of nitrogen to produce fer-
tilizer every year. However, bacteria with nitrogenase enzyme

can fix 90 million tons of nitrogen in normal temperature and
pressure conditions in a few weeks. In other words, the technol-
ogy the bacteria use is much more advanced than human’s
technology.
Various bacteria play a role in the transformation of nitro-
gen (N ) into ammonia (NH ). Azotobacter, Beijerinckia, Kleb-
2 3
siella, cyanobacteria, clostridium, desulfovibrio, purple sulphur
bacteria, purple nonsulphur bacteria, green sulphur bacteria,