Project description:Increased root H+ secretion is known as a strategy of plant adaption to low phosphorus (P) stress by enhancing mobilization of sparingly soluble P-sources. However, it remains fragmentarywhether enhanced H+ exudation could reconstruct the plant rhizosphere microbial community under low P stress. The present study found that P deficiency led to enhanced H+ exudation from soybean (Glycine max) roots. Three out of all eleven soybean H+-pyrophosphatases (GmVP) geneswere up-regulated by Pi starvation in soybean roots. Among them, GmVP2 showed the highest expression level under low P conditions. Transient expression of a GmVP2-green fluorescent protein chimera in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaves, and functional characterization of GmVP2 in transgenic soybean hairy roots demonstrated that GmVP2 encoded a plasma membrane transporter that mediated H+ exudation. Meanwhile, GmVP2-overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana resulted in enhanced root H+ exudation, promoted plant growth, and improved sparingly soluble Ca-P utilization. Overexpression of GmVP2 also changed the rhizospheric microbial community structures, as reflected by a preferential accumulation of acidobacteria in the rhizosphere soils. These results suggested that GmVP2 mediated Pi-starvation responsive H+ exudation,which is not only involved in plant growth and mobilization of sparingly soluble P-sources, but also affects microbial community structures in soils.
Project description:Elevated atmospheric CO2 can influence the structure and function of rhizosphere microorganisms by altering root growth and the quality and quantity of compounds released into the rhizosphere via root exudation. In these studies we investigated the transcriptional responses of Bradyrhizobium japonicum cells growing in the rhizosphere of soybean plants exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2. The results of microarray analyses indicated that atmospheric elevated CO2 concentration indirectly influences on expression of large number of Bradyrhizobium genes through soybean roots. In addition, genes involved in C1 metabolism, denitrification and FixK2-associated genes, including those involved in nitrogen fixation, microanaerobic respiration, respiratory nitrite reductase, and heme biosynthesis, were significantly up-regulated under conditions of elevated CO2 in the rhizosphere, relative to plants and bacteria grown under ambient CO2 growth conditions. The expression profile of genes involved in lipochitinoligosaccharide Nod factor biosynthesis and negative transcriptional regulators of nodulation genes, nolA and nodD2, were also influenced by plant growth under conditions of elevated CO2. Taken together, results of these studies indicate that growth of soybeans under conditions of elevated atmospheric CO2 influences gene expressions in B. japonicum in the soybean rhizosphere, resulting in changes to carbon/nitrogen metabolism, respiration, and nodulation efficiency.
Project description:Elevated atmospheric CO2 can influence the structure and function of rhizosphere microorganisms by altering root growth and the quality and quantity of compounds released into the rhizosphere via root exudation. In these studies we investigated the transcriptional responses of Bradyrhizobium japonicum cells growing in the rhizosphere of soybean plants exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2. Transciptomic expression profiles indicated that genes involved in carbon/nitrogen metabolism, and FixK2-associated genes, including those involved in nitrogen fixation, microanaerobic respiration, respiratory nitrite reductase, and heme biosynthesis, were significantly up-regulated under conditions of elevated CO2, relative to plants and bacteria grown under ambient CO2 growth conditions. The expression profile of genes involved in lipochitinoligosaccharide Nod factor biosynthesis and negative transcriptional regulators of nodulation genes, nolA and nodD2, were also influenced by plant growth under conditions of elevated CO2. Taken together, results of these studies indicate that growth of soybeans under conditions of elevated atmospheric CO2 influences gene expressions in B. japonicum in the soybean rhizosphere, resulting in changes to carbon/nitrogen metabolism, respiration, and nodulation efficiency. Bradyrhizobium japonicum strains were grown in the soybean rhizosphere under two different CO2 concentrations. Transcriptional profiling of B. japonicum was compared between cells grown under elevated CO2 and ambient conditions. Four biological replicates of each treatment were prepared, and four microarray slides were used for each strain.
Project description:Plants and rhizosphere microbes rely closely on each other, with plants supplying carbon to bacteria in root exudates, and bacteria mobilizing soil-bound phosphate for plant nutrition. When the phosphate supply becomes limiting for plant growth, the composition of root exudation changes, affecting rhizosphere microbial communities and microbially-mediated nutrient fluxes. To evaluate how plant phosphate deprivation affects rhizosphere bacteria, Lolium perenne seedlings were root-inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa 7NR, and grown in axenic microcosms under different phosphate regimes (330 uM vs 3-6 uM phosphate). The effect of biological nutrient limitation was examined by DNA microarray studies of rhizobacterial gene expression.
Project description:Dynamic changes in the rhizosphere bacterial community in monoculture and intercropped maize and soybean during various crop growth stages
Project description:Plants reorganize their root architecture to avoid growth into unfavorable regions of the rhizosphere. In a screen based on chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology, we identified the Arabidopsis thaliana GeBP-LIKE 4 (GPL4) transcription factor as an inhibitor of root growth that is induced rapidly in root tips in response to cadmium (Cd). We tested the hypothesis that GPL4 functions in the root avoidance of Cd by analyzing root proliferation in split medium, in which only half of the medium contained toxic concentrations of Cd. The wild-type (WT) plants exhibited root avoidance by inhibiting root growth in the Cd side but increasing root biomass in the control side. By contrast, GPL4-suppression lines exhibited nearly comparable root growth in the Cd and control sides and accumulated more Cd in the shoots than did the WT. GPL4 suppression also altered the root avoidance of toxic concentrations of other essential metals, modulated the expression of many genes related to oxidative stress, and consistently decreased reactive oxygen species concentrations. We suggest that GPL4 inhibits the growth of roots exposed to toxic metals by modulating reactive oxygen species concentrations, thereby allowing roots to colonize noncontaminated regions of the rhizosphere.thereby re-allocating root biomass toward non-contaminated rhizosphere areas and minimizing root exposure to toxic metals.
Project description:As an important adaptation to drought stress, several agronomic species, such as soybean and maize, can maintain the primary root substantial elongation rates at low water potentials, whereas shoot growth stops completely. In soybean, kinematic characterization of the spatial patterns of cell expansion within the root elongation zone showed that at low water potentials, elongation rates were preferentially maintained toward the root apex but were progressively inhibited at more basal locations, resulting in a shortened growth zone. To explore the molecular mechanism of root elongation in response to water stress, we set out to examine the expression of soybean genes in different root regions after 5 hours (5h) and 48 hours (48h) water stress treatment using the Affymetrix Soybean GeneChip containing 37,500 G. max probe sets.