Dataset Information

Diverse roles of the GlcP glucose permease in free-living and symbiotic cyanobacteria.

ABSTRACT: Certain cyanobacteria can form symbiotic associations with plants, where the symbiont supplies the plant partner with nitrogen and in return obtains sugars. We recently showed that in the symbiotic cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme, a glucose specific permease, GlcP, is necessary for the symbiosis to be formed. Results presented here from growth yield measurements of mutant strains with inactivated or overexpressing sugar transporters suggest that GlcP could be induced by a symbiosis specific substance. We also discuss that the transporter may have a role other than nutritional once the symbiosis is established, i.e., during infection, and more specifically in the chemotaxis of the symbiont. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the distribution of GlcP among cyanobacteria is likely influenced by horizontal gene transfer, but also that it is not correlated with symbiotic competence. Instead, regulatory patterns of the transporter in Nostoc punctiforme likely constitute symbiosis specific adaptations.

SUBMITTER: Picossi S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4091242 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Diverse roles of the GlcP glucose permease in free-living and symbiotic cyanobacteria.

Picossi Silvia S Flores Enrique E Ekman Martin M

Plant signaling & behavior 20131231 12

Certain cyanobacteria can form symbiotic associations with plants, where the symbiont supplies the plant partner with nitrogen and in return obtains sugars. We recently showed that in the symbiotic cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme, a glucose specific permease, GlcP, is necessary for the symbiosis to be formed. Results presented here from growth yield measurements of mutant strains with inactivated or overexpressing sugar transporters suggest that GlcP could be induced by a symbiosis specific su ...[more]

PMID: 24675169

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Project description:UNLABELLED:A better understanding of how bacteria resist stresses encountered during the progression of plant-microbe symbioses will advance our ability to stimulate plant growth. Here, we show that the symbiotic system comprising the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens and the legume Aeschynomene afraspera requires hopanoid production for optimal fitness. While methylated (2Me) hopanoids contribute to growth under plant-cell-like microaerobic and acidic conditions in the free-living state, they are dispensable during symbiosis. In contrast, synthesis of extended (C35) hopanoids is required for growth microaerobically and under various stress conditions (high temperature, low pH, high osmolarity, bile salts, oxidative stress, and antimicrobial peptides) in the free-living state and also during symbiosis. These defects might be due to a less rigid membrane resulting from the absence of free or lipidA-bound C35 hopanoids or the accumulation of the C30 hopanoid diploptene. Our results also show that C35 hopanoids are necessary for symbiosis only with the host Aeschynomene afraspera but not with soybean. This difference is likely related to the presence of cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides in Aeschynomene nodules that induce drastic modification in bacterial morphology and physiology. The study of hopanoid mutants in plant symbionts thus provides an opportunity to gain insight into host-microbe interactions during later stages of symbiotic progression, as well as the microenvironmental conditions for which hopanoids provide a fitness advantage. IMPORTANCE:Because bradyrhizobia provide fixed nitrogen to plants, this work has potential agronomical implications. An understanding of how hopanoids facilitate bacterial survival in soils and plant hosts may aid the engineering of more robust agronomic strains, especially relevant in regions that are becoming warmer and saline due to climate change. Moreover, this work has geobiological relevance: hopanes, molecular fossils of hopanoids, are enriched in ancient sedimentary rocks at discrete intervals in Earth history. This is the first study to uncover roles for 2Me- and C35 hopanoids in the context of an ecological niche that captures many of the stressful environmental conditions thought to be important during (2Me)-hopane deposition. Though much remains to be done to determine whether the conditions present within the plant host are shared with niches of relevance to the rock record, our findings represent an important step toward identifying conserved mechanisms whereby hopanoids contribute to fitness.

Dataset Information

Diverse roles of the GlcP glucose permease in free-living and symbiotic cyanobacteria.

Publications

Diverse roles of the GlcP glucose permease in free-living and symbiotic cyanobacteria.

Similar Datasets

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