Burns & Bulen (1965) showed that cell-free extracts of Azotobacter vinelandii contained an ATP-activated system capable of fixing nitrogen. When provided with sodium dithionite and an ATPgenerating system, their preparations evolved less hydrogen under nitrogen than under argon, the difference being accountable as nitrogen reduced to ammonia. Hardy & Knight (1966b) showed that dithionitedependent adenosine-triphosphatase activity was associated with nitrogen fixation. More recently preparations from A. vinetandii and Cloetridium pa8teurianum have been found to reduce a variety of additional substrate including acetylene (Dilworth, 1966), nitrous oxide, N3-and CN-ions (Hardy & Knight,1966a). We now report that nitrogen-fixing extracts of Azotobacter chroococcum reduce not only CN-ions but also methyl isocyanide, and indicate the relevance of these reactions to the mechanism of nitrogen fixation. Methods and Materials. Active cell-free extracts from A. chroococcum (N.C.I.B. 8003) grown on the nitrogen-free sucrose medium of Burk, Newton, Wilson & Harris (1953) were obtained by disruption at pH7-4 with ultrasound by using a Dawe Soniprobe. Whole cells and debris were removed by centrifuging at 18000g for 30min. and the supernatant was heated for 7min. at 600 under an atmo