Biological nitrogen fixation, the reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia, is catalysed by nitrogenases. These enzymes are found in relatively few groups of bacteria and until recently it appeared that N2 fixation occurred by a single route involving a molybdenum-containing enzyme. However, it is now clear that Mo is not an essential metal for N2 fixation. The soil bacterium Azotobacter chroococcum has an Mo-containing nitrogenase with properties very similar to those found in many other diazotrophic organisms, but it also has a vanadium-containing nitrogenase which functions in the presence of V if Mo is not available. The closely related species A . vinelandii has, in addition to Mo and V nitrogenases, a third nitrogenase which functions only under conditions where Mo and V levels are very low [l].The three nitrogenase systems of A. vinelandii are genetically distinct, being encoded by different structural genes. These genes for the three nitrogenase systems have been cloned and sequenced and have considerable similarity. The nitrogenases have been purified and shown to have similar requirements for activity, viz. a low-potential electron donor, MgATP and the absence of oxygen. They can each be separated into two essential component proteins. All three have a distinct Fe-containing protein (component 2) which, together with either an MoFe protein, a VFe protein, or a homologous protein which contains Fe but only low levels of Mo or V (component l), make up the active nitrogenases.Studies on the structure and function of nitrogenase proteins have benefitted significantly from information provided from studies on the biochemical genetics of nitrogen fixation. The genetics of nitrogen fixation is complex. In Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is the most intensively studied diazotroph and for which there is no evidence for the presence of additional Mo-independent nitrogenases, the 20 nif' genes required solely for nitrogen fixation and its regulation are clustered on a 23-kb region of the chromosome. The entire n[f gene cluster has been sequenced [2]. In addition to the structural genes of nitrogenase (nif'HDK), genes involved in the activation of nitrogenase Fe protein ( n i j w , iron-molybdenum cofactor (FeMoco) biosynthesis (nijii V3ENH) (see below), electron donation ( n i j l f l , several genes of unknown function and the regulatory genes nif'AL are located in this cluster (see Fig. 1 and [3, 41).A . vinelandii and A . chroococcum have a comparable gene cluster, except that they contain additional open reading frames (ORFs) of unknown function and nifABQ map outside the major nif'gene region. The Azotobacter nitrogen fixation genes associated with Mo-independent nitrogenases have also been cloned and sequenced. They include the structural genes of the V nitrogenase (vnf: vanadium nitrogen fixation) and, in A . vinelandii only, the structural genes of the third nitrogenase (an8 alternative nitrogen fixation). In addition to these structural genes, specific regulatory nif'A-like genes and a reiteration of nif'EN-like ...