Nitrous oxide inside the cells, by a process catalyzed by the enzyme nitrous oxide reductase. Nitrous oxide has significant global warming potential as a greenhouse gas. On a per-molecule basis, considered over a 100-year-period, nitrous oxide has 298 times the atmospheric heat-trapping ability of carbon dioxide (), however, because of its low concentration (less than 1/1000 of that of ), its contribution to the greenhouse effect is less than one-third that of carbon dioxide, and also less than water vapour and methane. On the other hand, since 38% or more of the entering the atmosphere is the result of human activity, and
Nitrous-oxide reductase competent unit. The Cu center can undergo a one-electron redox change and hence has a function similar to that in the well-known aa-type cytochrome "c" oxidases () where it serves to receive an electron from soluble cytochromes "c". Acetylene is the most specific inhibitor of nitrous-oxide reductase. Other inhibitors include azide anion, thiocyanate, carbon monoxide, iodide, and cyanide. Nitrous-oxide reductase In enzymology, a nitrous oxide reductase also known as nitrogen:acceptor oxidoreductase (NO-forming) is an enzyme that catalyzes the final step in bacterial denitrification, the reduction of nitrous oxide to dinitrogen. It plays a critical role in preventing release of a