A. K. Garcia

A CRISPR interference system for the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii

This paper develops a CRISPR interference system in Azotobacter vinelandii to silence nitrogen fixation genes and demonstrates its utility for combinatorial gene expression studies.

A hybrid nitrogenase with regulatory elasticity in Azotobacter vinelandii

The paper shows that reducing trace metal and electron resources to nitrogenase allows engineered Azotobacter vinelandii to recover wild-type growth with a reduced nitrogenase variant.

The nitrogenase G-subunit is an ancient orphan protein that drove the ecological expansion of nitrogen fixation

The paper investigates the evolutionary origin and ecological impact of the nitrogenase G-subunit, showing its role in enabling nitrogen fixation under changing environmental conditions.

Nitrogenase resurrection and the evolution of a singular enzymatic mechanism

This study resurrects ancient nitrogenase enzymes and shows their in vivo functionality and reversible dinitrogen reduction mechanism, suggesting evolutionary constraints in catalyzing this reaction.

Reconstruction of nitrogenase predecessors suggests origin from maturase-like proteins

This study reconstructs the evolutionary origins of nitrogenase enzymes, suggesting they evolved from maturase-like proteins rather than the other way around.

Earliest photic zone niches probed by ancestral microbial rhodopsins

This study reconstructs the paleobiological history of ancestral microbial rhodopsins by combining phylogenetic analysis with environmental modeling to infer their functional roles and spectral tuning in early Earth niches.

Resurrected Rubisco suggests uniform carbon isotope signatures over geologic time

The paper resurrects an ancient RuBisCO enzyme to test if uniform carbon isotope signatures are consistent across geological time, finding support for uniformitarian assumptions with caveats.

Effects of CO2 and RuBisCO concentration on cyanobacterial growth and carbon isotope fractionation

This study investigates how CO2 and RuBisCO concentration affect cyanobacterial growth and carbon isotope fractionation by engineering a RuBisCO-overexpressing mutant strain.

Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Nitrogenases: Evidence for Ancestral Molybdenum-Cofactor Utilization

This study reconstructs the evolutionary history of nitrogenases, finding that ancient nitrogenases likely used molybdenum cofactors, with implications for early biogeochemical cycles.