Project description:During the legume-rhizobium symbiosis, free-living soil bacteria known as rhizobia trigger the formation of root nodules. The rhizobia infect these organs and adopt an intracellular lifestyle within the symbiotic nodule cells where they become nitrogen-fixing bacteroids. Several legume lineages enforce their symbionts into an extreme cellular differentiation, comprising cell enlargement and genome endoreduplication. The antimicrobial peptide transporter BclA is a major determinant of this differentiation process in Bradyrhizobium sp. ORS285, a symbiont of Aeschynomene spp.. In the absence of BclA, Bradyrhizobium sp. ORS285 proceeds until the intracellular infection of nodule cells but the bacteria cannot differentiate into enlarged polyploid bacteroids and fix nitrogen. The nodule bacteria of the bclA mutant constitute thus an intermediate stage between the free-living soil bacteria and the intracellular nitrogen-fixing bacteroids. Metabolomics on whole nodules of Aeschynomene afraspera and Aeschynomene indica infected with the ORS285 wild type or the bclA mutant revealed 47 metabolites that differentially accumulated concomitantly with bacteroid differentiation. Bacterial transcriptome analysis of these nodules discriminated nodule-induced genes that are specific to differentiated and nitrogen-fixing bacteroids and others that are activated in the host microenvironment irrespective of bacterial differentiation and nitrogen fixation. These analyses demonstrated that the intracellular settling of the rhizobia in the symbiotic nodule cells is accompanied with a first transcriptome switch involving several hundreds of upregulated and downregulated genes and a second switch accompanying the bacteroid differentiation, involving less genes but that are expressed to extremely elevated levels. The transcriptomes further highlighted the dynamics of oxygen and redox regulation of gene expression during nodule formation and we discovered that bclA represses the expression of non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters suggesting a non-symbiotic function of BclA. Together, our data uncover the metabolic and gene expression changes that accompany the transition from intracellular bacteria into differentiated nitrogen-fixing bacteroids.
Project description:To circumvent the paucity of nitrogen sources in the soil Legume plants evolved a symbiotic interaction with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria called rhizobia. During symbiosis, legumes form root organs called nodules, where bacteria are housed intracellularly and become active nitrogen fixers known as bacteroids. Depending on their host plant, bacteroids can adopt different morphotypes, being either unmodified (U), elongated (E) or spherical (S). E- and S-typr bacteroids undergo a terminal differentiation leading to irreversible morphological changes and DNA endoreduplication. Previous studies suggest that differentiated bacteroids display an increased symbiotic efficiency (E>U & S>U). In this study, we used a combination of Aeschynomene species inducing E- and S-type bacteroids in symbiosis with Bradyrhizobium sp. ORS285 to show that S- performed better than E-type bacteroids. Thus, we performed a transcriptomic analysis on E- and S-type bacteroids to identify the bacterial functions involved in each bacteroid type.
Project description:Nodule-forming bacteria play crucial roles in plant health and nutrition by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Despite the importance of this relationship, how nodule-forming bacteria are affected by plant exudates and soil minerals is not fully characterized. Of particular interest are the effects of plant-derived methanol and lanthanide metals on the growth of nitrogen-fixing Rhizobiales. Prior work has demonstrated that select Bradyrhizobium are able to assimilate methanol only in the presence of lanthanide metals; however, the pathway enabling assimilation remains unknown. Here we characterize Bradyrhizobium sp. USDA 3456 to determine the pathways involved in methanol metabolism. Based on genomic analyses, we hypothesized that methanol assimilation in these organisms occurs via the lanthanide-dependent methanol dehydrogenase XoxF, followed by oxidation of formaldehyde via the glutathione-linked oxidation pathway, subsequent oxidation of formate via formate dehydrogenases, and finally assimilation of CO2 via the Calvin Benson Bassham (CBB) pathway. Transcriptomics revealed upregulation of the aforementioned pathways in Bradyrhizobium sp. USDA 3456 during growth on methanol. Assays demonstrated increased activity of the glutathione-linked oxidation pathway and formate dehydrogenases during growth on methanol compared to succinate. 13C-labeling studies demonstrate the presence of CBB intermediates and label incorporation during growth on methanol. Our findings provide multiple lines of evidence supporting the proposed XoxF-CBB pathway and, combined with genomic analyses, suggest that this metabolism is widespread among Bradyrhizobium and Sinorhizobium species.
Project description:The soybean–Bradyrhizobium symbiosis enables symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) within root nodules, reducing reliance on synthetic N fertilizers. However, nitrogen fixation is transient, peaking several weeks after Bradyrhizobium colonization and declining as nodules senesce in coordination with host development. To investigate the regulatory mechanisms governing SNF and senescence, we conducted a temporal transcriptomic analysis of soybean nodules colonized with Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens USDA110. Weekly nodule samples (2 to 10 weeks postinoculation, wpi) were analyzed using RNA and small RNA sequencing, and acetylene reduction assays assessed nitrogenase activity from 4 to 7 wpi. We identified three major nodule developmental phases: early development (2 to 3 wpi), nitrogen fixation (3 to 8 wpi), and senescence (8 to 10 wpi). Soybean showed extensive transcriptional reprogramming during senescence, whereas Bradyrhizobium underwent major transcriptional shifts early in development before stabilizing during nitrogen fixation. We identified seven soybean genes and several microRNAs as candidate biomarkers of nitrogen fixation, including lipoxygenases (Lox), suggesting roles for oxylipin metabolism. Soy hemoglobin-2 (Hb2), previously classified as nonsymbiotic, was upregulated during senescence, implicating oxidative stress responses within aging nodules. Upregulation of the Bradyrhizobium paa operon and rpoH during senescence suggesting metabolic adaptation for survival beyond symbiosis. Additionally, Bradyrhizobium nif gene expression showed stage-specific regulation, with nifK peaking at 2 wpi, nifD and nifA at 2 and 10 wpi, and nifH, nifW, and nifS at 10 wpi. These findings provide insights into SNF regulation and nodule aging, revealing temporal gene expression patterns that could inform breeding or genetic engineering strategies to enhance nitrogen fixation in soybeans and other legume crops.
Project description:Metabolomics and transcriptomics of Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens-induced root nodules Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens is a nitrogen-fixing endosymbiont, which can grow inside root-nodule cells of the agriculturally important soybean and other host plants. Our previous studies described B. diazoefficiens host-specific global expression changes occurring during legume infection at the transcript and protein level. In order to further characterize nodule metabolism, we here determine by flow injection -time of flight mass spectrometry analysis the metabolome of i) nodules and roots from four different B. diazoefficiens host plants, ii) soybean nodules harvested at different time points during nodule development, and iii) soybean nodules infected by two strains mutated in key genes for nitrogen fixation, respectively. Ribose (soybean), tartaric acid (mungbean), hydroxybutanoyloxybutanoate (siratro) and catechol (cowpea) were among the metabolites found to be specifically elevated in one of the respective host plants. While the level of C4-dicarboxylic acids decreased during soybean nodule development, we observed an accumulation of trehalose-phosphate at 21 days post infection (dpi). Moreover, nodules from non-nitrogen-fixing bacteroids (nifA and nifH mutants) showed specific metabolic alterations; these were also supported by transcriptomics data that was generated for the two mutant strains and were helpful to separate for some examples the respective bacterial and plant contributions to the metabolic profile. The alterations included signs of nitrogen limitation in both mutants, and an increased level of a phytoalexin in nodules induced by the nifA mutant, suggesting that the tissue of these nodules exhibits defense and stress reactions.
Project description:To investigate the gene expression levels of Medicago truncatula roots after beneficial fungi Gongronella sp. w5 inoculated.Gongronella sp. w5 promoted M. truncatula growth and caused the accumulation of sucrose in M. truncatula root tissue at 16 day-post-inoculation (dpi) without invading into the root cells. The transport of photosynthetic product sucrose to the rhizosphere by M. truncatula root cells was accelerated by upregulating the SWEET gene.
Project description:Global bottom-up proteomics analysis of proteins purified from soybean root nodules infected with either WT or nifH- mutant Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Nine glycoproteins containing Lewis-a N-glycans, with 3 distinct Lewis-a epitopes (Hex:5 HexNAc:4 dHex:3 Pent:1, Hex:4 HexNAc:4 dHex:2 Pent:1, and Hex:4 HexNAc:3 dHex:2 Pent:1) were observed. Proteins purified from WT and nifH- infected soybean root nodules (five biological replicates each) were reduced using dithiothreitol, alkylated with iodoacetamide and trypsin digested followed by C18 SPE clean-up and LC-MS/MS analysis. Raw data files were processed using FragPipe v17.1, then output files 'combined_modified_peptide.tsv' and 'combined_protein.tsv' were used to identify glycopeptides and for global protein quantitation. These files, along with Excel files containing global quantitation analysis files for soybean nodule (Glycine max) and bacterial (Bradyrhizobium), are available in directory 'Quantification/MSFragger_results'. Glycopeptide data were also processed with PMI Byonic, and Excel file results are available in directory 'Quantification/PMI_Byonic_results'.
Project description:part of GSE8478: Genome-wide transcript analysis of Bradyrhizobium japonicum bacteroids in soybean root nodules This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.