Nitrogen Metabolism and Degradation

Dear Colleagues,

Nitrogen is an essential element required for cellular growth. It serves as a building block in primary metabolism for the biosynthesis of macromolecules and provides precursors in secondary metabolism for secondary metabolites. Many organisms have developed the ability to use various nitrogen-containing compounds, including molecules such as ammonium, nitrate, amino acids, amino sugars, urea, monoamines, polyamines, and others. These compounds are utilized via catabolic routes to support cellular homeostasis. The most common nitrogen-containing compound is ammonium, integrated into cellular metabolism by conserved enzymes for nitrogen assimilation involving glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase and glutamate dehydrogenase. Organisms living in habitats with a changeable availability of nutrients, e.g., bacteria, have developed strategies to survive under nitrogen limitations. One adaptation is the ability to acquire nitrogen from alternative nitrogen sources, including polyamines putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine, and spermine. For survival in a competitive and stressful environment with nutrient limitations, different organisms have developed a complex metabolism and regulatory machinery that controls the amount of nitrogen in their cells at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. The strict regulation of nitrogen metabolism is necessary when faced with low nitrogen availability and is also required to survive under very high concentrations of these compounds. Such conditions can occur in diverse habitats, such as soil, plant tissues, and human cells, which are associated with nitrogen-use efficiency. The strategies that pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms use to survive in the presence of nitrogen-containing compounds offer the possibility to combat pathogens using their capability to metabolize nitrogen.

This Special Issue will discuss new insight into the molecular mechanisms regulating nitrogen metabolism and degradation and the functions of nitrogen-containing compounds in cellular metabolism.

We invite authors to submit original research or review articles that cover the following topics:

• The molecular mechanisms of nitrogen metabolism regulation (including synthesis, catabolism, and transport).
• The presence of nitrogen-containing compounds in different cellular types and their association with pathological conditions.
• Nitrogen degradation pathways in different model organisms.
• Nitrogen metabolism in bacterial pathogens.
• Nitrogen metabolism in human diseases (tuberculosis, malaria, cancer, etc.) and immune response.
• The role of nitrogen metabolism in secondary metabolism in microorganisms and plants.
• The role of nitrogen degradation and nitrogen fixation in soil microorganisms that undergo symbiotic interactions with plants and their nitrogen-use efficiency.
• The role of nitrogen metabolism in cellular functions and the multiple roles nitrogen-containing compounds play in cellular physiology and pathology.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Sergii Krysenko
Dr. Xolani Makhoba
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nitrogen is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• nitrogen metabolism
• nitrogen assimilation
• nitrogen-use efficiency
• primary and secondary metabolism of nitrogen-containing compounds
• mono- and polyamine metabolism
• nitrogen fixation and symbiotic interactions
• drug discovery and drug targets