Project description:Earlier, we reported that root nodulation was inhibited by blue light irradiation of Lotus japonicus. Because some legumes do not establish nodules exclusively on underground roots, we investigated whether nodule formation in Sesbania rostrata, which forms both root and "stem" nodules following inoculation with Azorhizobium caulinodans, is inhibited by blue light as are L. japonicus nodules. We found that neither S. rostrata nodulation nor nitrogen fixation was inhibited by blue light exposure. Moreover, although A. caulinodans proliferation was not affected by blue light irradiation, bacterial survival was decreased. Therefore, blue light appears to impose different responses depending on the legume-rhizobial symbiosis.
Project description:UnlabelledAzorhizobium caulinodans ORS571 is a free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium which can induce nitrogen-fixing nodules both on the root and the stem of its legume host Sesbania rostrata This bacterium, which is an obligate aerobe that moves by means of a polar flagellum, possesses a single chemotaxis signal transduction pathway. The objective of this work was to examine the role that chemotaxis and aerotaxis play in the lifestyle of the bacterium in free-living and symbiotic conditions. In bacterial chemotaxis, chemoreceptors sense environmental changes and transmit this information to the chemotactic machinery to guide motile bacteria to preferred niches. Here, we characterized a chemoreceptor of A. caulinodans containing an N-terminal PAS domain, named IcpB. IcpB is a soluble heme-binding protein that localized at the cell poles. An icpB mutant strain was impaired in sensing oxygen gradients and in chemotaxis response to organic acids. Compared to the wild-type strain, the icpB mutant strain was also affected in the production of extracellular polysaccharides and impaired in flocculation. When inoculated alone, the icpB mutant induced nodules on S. rostrata, but the nodules formed were smaller and had reduced N2-fixing activity. The icpB mutant failed to nodulate its host when inoculated competitively with the wild-type strain. Together, the results identify chemotaxis and sensing of oxygen by IcpB as key regulators of the A. caulinodans-S. rostrata symbiosis.ImportanceBacterial chemotaxis has been implicated in the establishment of various plant-microbe associations, including that of rhizobial symbionts with their legume host. The exact signal(s) detected by the motile bacteria that guide them to their plant hosts remain poorly characterized. Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571 is a diazotroph that is a motile and chemotactic rhizobial symbiont of Sesbania rostrata, where it forms nitrogen-fixing nodules on both the roots and the stems of the legume host. We identify here a chemotaxis receptor sensing oxygen in A. caulinodans that is critical for nodulation and nitrogen fixation on the stems and roots of S. rostrata These results identify oxygen sensing and chemotaxis as key regulators of the A. caulinodans-S. rostrata symbiosis.
Project description:Phytochelatins (PCs) play an important role in detoxification of heavy metals in plants. PCs are synthesized from glutathione by phytochelatin synthase (PCS), a dipeptidyltransferase. Sesbania rostrata is a tropical legume plant that can tolerate high concentrations of Cd and Zn. In this study, the S. rostrata PCS gene (SrPCS) and cDNAs were isolated and characterized. Southern blot and sequence analysis revealed that a single copy of the SrPCS gene occurs in the S. rostrata genome, and produces four different SrPCS mRNAs and proteins, SrPCS1-SrPCS4, by alternative splicing of the SrPCS pre-mRNA. The SrPCS1 and SrPCS3 proteins conferred Cd tolerance when expressed in yeast cells, whereas the SrPCS2 and SrPCS4 proteins, which lack the catalytic triad and the N-terminal domains, did not. These results suggested that SrPCS1 and SrPCS3 have potential applications in genetic engineering of plants for enhancing heavy metal tolerance and phytoremediation of contaminated soils.
Project description:The molecular and physiological mechanisms behind the maturation and maintenance of N(2)-fixing nodules during development of symbiosis between rhizobia and legumes still remain unclear, although the early events of symbiosis are relatively well understood. Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571 is a microsymbiont of the tropical legume Sesbania rostrata, forming N(2)-fixing nodules not only on the roots but also on the stems. In this study, 10,080 transposon-inserted mutants of A. caulinodans ORS571 were individually inoculated onto the stems of S. rostrata, and those mutants that induced ineffective stem nodules, as displayed by halted development at various stages, were selected. From repeated observations on stem nodulation, 108 Tn5 mutants were selected and categorized into seven nodulation types based on size and N(2) fixation activity. Tn5 insertions of some mutants were found in the well-known nodulation, nitrogen fixation, and symbiosis-related genes, such as nod, nif, and fix, respectively, lipopolysaccharide synthesis-related genes, C(4) metabolism-related genes, and so on. However, other genes have not been reported to have roles in legume-rhizobium symbiosis. The list of newly identified symbiosis-related genes will present clues to aid in understanding the maturation and maintenance mechanisms of nodules.
Project description:We have cloned the nodFE operon from Sinorhizobium sp. strain MUS10. MUS10 NodF shows sequence homology to acyl carrier protein and enables an S. meliloti nodF mutant to effectively nodulate alfalfa. Our results demonstrate the occurrence of nodFE in a symbiont that nodulates a legume host not belonging to the galegoid group.
Project description:A parA gene in-frame deletion mutant of Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571 (ORS571-ΔparA) was constructed to evaluate the roles of the chromosome-partitioning gene on various bacterial traits and on the development of stem-positioned nodules. The ΔparA mutant showed a pleiomorphic cell shape phenotype and was polyploid, with differences in nucleoid sizes due to dramatic defects in chromosome partitioning. Upon inoculation of the ΔparA mutant onto the stem of Sesbania rostrata, three types of immature nodule-like structures with impaired nitrogen-fixing activity were generated. Most showed signs of bacteroid early senescence. Moreover, the ΔparA cells within the nodule-like structures exhibited multiple developmental-stage phenotypes. Since the bacA gene has been considered an indicator for bacteroid formation, we applied the expression pattern of bacA as a nodule maturity index in this study. Our data indicate that the bacA gene expression is parA dependent in symbiosis. The presence of the parA gene transcript was inversely correlated with the maturity of nodule; the transcript was switched off in fully mature bacteroids. In summary, our experimental evidence demonstrates that the parA gene not only plays crucial roles in cellular development when the microbe is free-living but also negatively regulates bacteroid formation in S. rostrata stem nodules.
Project description:Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571 is able to nodulate roots and stems of the tropical legume Sesbania rostrata. An ORS571 Tn5 insertion mutant, strain ORS571-X15, had a rough colony morphology, was nonmotile, and showed clumping behavior on various media. When this pleiotropic mutant was inoculated on roots or stems of the host, no nodules developed (Nod-). Compared with the wild type, strain ORS571-X15 produced lipopolysaccharides (LPS) with an altered ladder pattern on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gels, suggestive of a different O-antigen structure with a lower degree of polymerization. A cosmid clone, pRG20, that fully complemented all phenotypes of ORS571-X15 was isolated. With a 6-kb EcoRI subfragment of pRG20, clumping was relieved and nodulation was almost completely restored, but the strain was still nonmotile. LPS preparations from these complemented strains resembled the wild-type LPS, although minor quantitative and qualitative differences were evident. The sequence of the locus hit by the Tn5 in ORS571-X15 (the oac locus) revealed a striking homology with the rfb locus of Salmonella typhimurium, which is involved in O-antigen biosynthesis. The Tn5 insertion position was mapped to the oac3 gene, homologous to rfbA, encoding dTDP-D-glucose synthase. Biochemical assaying showed that ORS571-X15 is indeed defective in dTDP-D-glucose synthase activity, essential for the production of particular deoxyhexoses. Therefore, it was proposed that the O antigen of the mutant strain is devoid of such sugars.
Project description:This study focuses on the function of the gene praR that encodes a putative transcription factor in Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571, a microsymbiont of Sesbania rostrata. The praR gene is a homolog of the phrR gene of Sinorhizobium medicae WSM419, and the praR and phrR homologs are distributed throughout the class Alphaproteobacteria. The growth and nitrogen fixation activity of an A. caulinodans praR deletion mutant in the free-living state were not significantly different from those of the wild-type strain. However, the stem nodules formed by the praR mutant showed lower nitrogen fixation activity than the wild-type stem nodules. Microscopy revealed that infected host cells with an oval or elongated shape were observed at early stages in the nodules formed by the praR mutant, but these infected cells gradually fell into two types. One maintained an oval or elongated shape, but the vacuoles in these cells gradually enlarged and the bacteria gradually disappeared. The other cells were shrunken with bacteria remaining inside. Microarrays revealed that genes homologous to the reb genes of Caedibacter taeniospiralis were highly expressed in the praR mutant. Furthermore, the stem nodules formed by an A. caulinodans mutant with a deletion of praR and reb-homologous genes showed high nitrogen fixation activity, comparable to that of the wild-type stem nodules, and were filled with oval or elongated host cells. These results suggest that PraR controls the expression of the reb-homologous genes and that high expression of reb-homologous genes causes aberrance in A. caulinodans-S. rostrata symbiosis.
Project description:Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571 is a diazotroph that forms N2-fixing nodules on the roots and stems of the tropical legume Sesbania rostrata. Deletion of the parA gene of this bacterium results in cell cycle defects, pleiomorphic cell shape, and formation of immature stem nodules on its host plant. In this study, we constructed a parA overexpression mutant (PnptII-parA) to complement a previous study and provide new insights into bacteroid formation. We found that overproduction of ParA did not affect growth, cell morphology, chromosome partitioning, or vegetative nitrogen fixation in the free-living state. Under symbiosis, however, distinctive features, such as a single swollen bacteroid in one symbiosome, relatively narrow symbiosome space, and polyploid cells were observed. The morphotype of the PnptII-parA bacteroid is reminiscent of terminal differentiation in some IRLC indeterminate nodules, but S. rostrata is not thought to produce the NCR peptides that induce terminal differentiation in rhizobia. In addition, the transcript patterns of many symbiosis-related genes elicited by PnptII-parA were different from those elicited by the wild type. Accordingly, we propose that the particular symbiosome formation in PnptII-parA stem-nodules is due to cell cycle disruption caused by excess ParA protein in the symbiotic cells during nodulation.