Abstract
Due to the agricultural importance of legumes and their symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, the term “Rhizobium-legume symbiosis” has become almost synonymous with the term “root nodule symbiosis”. Recent studies, however, have shown that nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation also occur on the stem of some legumes, including Aeschynomene and Sesbania. Upon association with specific Rhizobium strains, generally referred to as “stem rhizobia”, the Aeschynomene and Sesbania plants can form nodules on either roots or stems, or both (Yatazawa and Yoshida, 1979; Dreyfus and Ommergues, 1981; Eaglesham and Szalay, 1983). Unlike the formation of root nodules, stem nodulation in Aeschynomene is not significantly inhibited at increased concentrations of applied nitrogen, whereas the efficiency of nitrogen fixation in stem nodules is comparable to that of soybean root nodules (Legocki et al., 1983 a). These observations, along with the fact that repeated inoculations of Aeschynomene plants with stem Rhizobium result in an increased number of nodules (up to 450 per plant, Legocki et al., 1983 a), have recently led to an intensive research of the stem nodule symbiosis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allen, E. K., Allen, O. N., 1950: Biochemical and symbiotic properties of the rhizobia. Bacteriol. Rev. 14, 273–330.
Allen, O. N., Allen, E. K., 1981: In: The Leguminosae, A Source Book of Characteristics, Uses, and Nodulation. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 812 pp.
Appleby, C. A., Nicola, N. A., Hurrell, J. G. R., Leach, S. J., 1975: Characterization and improved separation of soybean leghemoglobins. Biochemistry 14, 4444–4450.
Baulcombe, D., Verma, D. P. S., 1978: Preparation of a complementary DNA for leghemoglobin and direct demonstration that leghemoglobin is encoded by the soybean genome. Nucl. Acids Res. 5, 4141–4153.
Bogusz, D., Delajudie, P., Dreyfus, B., 1983: Transposons, plasmids and bacteriophages as tools in genetic analysis of Rhizobium from Sesbania rostrata. In: Proceedings of the First Internat. Symp. Molec. Genetics of the Bacteria-Plant Interaction, Pühler, A. (ed.). Berlin - Heidelberg - New York - Tokyo: Springer (in press).
Burns, R. C., Hardy, R. W. F., 1975: Description and classification of diazotrophs. In: Nitrogen Fixation in Bacteria and Higher Plants, Kleinzeller, A., Whitmann, H. G. (eds.), 14–38, Berlin — Heidelberg – New York: Springer.
Davis, B. J., 1964: Disc electrophoresis, method and application to human serum proteins. Annals New York Acad. Sci. 121, 404–427.
Dreyfus, B. L., Dommergues, Y. R., 1981: Stem nodules on the tropical legume Sesbania rostrata. In: Current Perspectives in Nitrogen Fixation, Gibson, A. H., Newton, W. E. (eds.), p. 471, Canberra: Australian Academy of Sciences.
Dreyfus, B. L., Elmerich, C., Dommergues, Y. R., 1983: Free-living Rhizobium strain able to grow on N2 as the sole nitrogen source. Appl. Environmental Microbiol. 45, 711–713.
Eaglesham, A. R. J., Szalay, A. A., 1983: Aerial stem nodules on Aeschynomene spp. Plant Sci. Lett. 29, 265–272.
Eckhardt, T., 1978: A rapid method for the identification of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid in bacteria. Plasmid 1, 584–588.
Ellfolk, N., 1972: Leghaemoglobin, a plant haemoglobin. Endeavour 31, 139–142.
Elmerich, C., Dreyfus, B. L., Reysset, G., Aubert, J.-P., 1982: Genetic analysis of nitrogen fixation in a tropical fast-growing Rhizobium. EMBO J. 1, 449–503.
Elmerich, C., Dreyfus, B., Aubert, J.-P., 1983: Submitted (FEMS).
Fuchsman, W. H., Appleby, C. A., 1979: Separation and determination of the relative concentrations of the homogeneous components of soybean leghemoglobin by isoelectric focusing. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 579, 314–324.
Graham, P. H., Parker, C. A., 1964: Diagnostic features in the characterization of the root-nodule bacteria of legumes. Plant and Soil 20, 383–396.
Hagerup, O., 1982: En hygrofil baelgplante (Aeschynomene aspera L.) med bakterieknolde paa staengelen. Dan. Bot. Ark. 15, 1–9.
Johnson, M. D., Allen, O. N., 1952: Cultural reactions of rhizobia with special reference to strains isolated from Sesbania species. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek J. Microbiol. Serol. 18, 1–12.
Jordan, D. C., Allen, O. N., 1974: Rhizobiaceae. In: Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, Buchanan, R. E., Gibbons, N. E. (eds.), 261–267, Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Co.
Kado, C. I., Liu, S. T., 1981: Rapid procedure for determination and isolation of large and small plasmids. J. Bacteriol. 145, 1365–1373.
Keister, D. L., 1975: Acetylene reduction by pure cultures of rhizobia. J. Bacteriol. 123, 1265–1268.
Kingsbury, J. M., 1964: In: Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. 626 pp.
Kiss, G. B., Dobo, K., Dusha, I., Breznovits, A., Orosz, L., Vincze E., Kondorosi, A., 1980: Isolation and characterization of an R-prime plasmid from Rhizobium meliloti. J. Bacteriol. 141, 121–128.
Kurz, W. G. W., LaRue, T. A., 1975: Nitrogenase activity in rhizobia in absence of plant host. Nature (London) 256, 407–408.
Laemmli, U. K., 1970: Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophasity. Nature New Biol. 227, 680–685.
Legocki, R. P., Verma, D. P. S., 1979: A nodule-specific plant protein (nodulin-35) from soybean. Science 205, 190–193.
Legocki, R. P., Verma, D. P. S., 1980: Identification of “nodule-specific” host proteins (nodulins) involved in the development of Rhizobium-legume symbiosis. Cell 20, 153–163.
Legocki, R. P., Eaglesham, A. R. J., Szalay, A. A., 1983 a: Stem nodulation in Aeschynomene: a model system for bacterium-plant interactions. In: Proceedings of the First Internat. Symp. Molec. Genetics of the Bacteria-Plant Interaction, Pühler, A. (ed.), 210–219, Berlin — Heidelberg — New York — Tokyo: Springer.
Legocki, R. P., Yun, A., Szalay, A. A., 1984: Manuscript in preparation.
Legocki, R. P., Szalay, A. A., 1984: Expression of Beta-galactosidase controlled by a nitrogenase promotor in stem nodules of Aeschynomene scabra. Manuscript submitted (PNAS).
Marsh, C. D., Clawson, A. B., 1920: Daubentonia longifolia (coffee bean), a poisonous plant. J. Agric. Res. 20, 507–513.
Martinez-De Drets, G., Arias, A., 1972: Enzymatic basis for differentiation of Rhizobium into fast-and slow-growing groups. J. Bacteriol. 109, 467–470.
McComb, J. A., Elliott, J., Dilworth, M. J., 1975: Acetylene reduction by Rhizobium in pure culture. Nature (London) 256, 409–410.
Muenscher, W. C., 1939: In: Poisonous Plants of the United States. Rural Science Series. New York: Macmillan, 266 pp.
O’Farrell, P. H., 1975: High resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis of proteins. J. Biol. Chem. 250, 4007–4021.
Quinto, C., de la Vega, H., Flores, M., Fernandez, L., Ballado, T., Soberon, G., Palacios, R., 1982: Reiteration of nitrogen fixation gene sequences in Rhizobium phaseoli. Nature 299, 724–726.
Rosenberg, M., Court, D., 1979: Regulatory sequences involved in the promotion and termination of RNA transcription. Ann. Rev. Genet. 13, 319–353.
Ruvkun, G. B., Ausubel, F. M., 1980: Interspecies homology of nitrogenase genes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 77, 191–195.
Ruvkun, G. B., Ausubel, F. M., 1981: A general method for site-directed mutagenesis in procaryotes. Nature 289, 85–88.
Ruvkun, G. B., Sundaresan, V., Ausubel, F. M., 1982: Directed transposon Tn 5 mutagenesis and complementation analysis of Rhizobium meliloti symbiotic nitrogen fixation genes. Cell 28, 551–559.
Schaede, R., 1940: Die Knöllchen der adventiven Wasserwurzeln von Neptunia oleracea und ihre Bakteriensymbiose. Planta 31, 1–21.
Stowers, M. D., Eaglesham, A. R. J., 1983: A stem-nodulating Rhizobium with physiological characteristics of both fast and slow growers. J. Gen. Microbiol. (in press).
Sullivan, D., Brisson, N., Goodchild, B., Verma, D. P. S., Thomas, D. Y., 1981: Molecular cloning and organization of two leghaemoglobin genomic sequences of soybean. Nature 289, 516–518.
Teale, F. W. J., 1959: Cleavage of the haem-protein link by acid methylethylketone. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 35, 543.
Tsien, H. C., Dreyfus, B. L., Schmidt, E. L., 1983: Morphogenesis of stem nodules of Sesbania rostrata. In: Abstracts of the 9th North American Rhizobium Conference, Ithaca, N. Y., P6.
Verboom, W. C., 1966: The grassland communities of Barotseland. Trop. Agric. (Trinidad) 43, 107–115.
Vincent, J. M., 1977: Rhizobium: a general microbiology. In: A Treatise on Dinitrogen Fixation, Sect. III: Biology, Hardy, R. W. F., Silver, W. S. (eds.), 277–366, New York: Wiley.
Whittaker, R. G., Lennox, S., Appleby, C. A., 1981: Relationship of the minor soybean leghemoglobins d1, d2, d3 to the major leghemoglobins c1, c2 and c3. Biochem. Int. 3, 117–124.
Yatazawa, M., Yoshida, S., 1979: Stem nodules in Aeschynomene indica and their capacity of nitrogen fixation. Physiol. Plant. 45, 293–295.
Zurkowski, W., Lorkiewicz, Z., 1978: Effective method for the isolation of non-nodulating mutants of Rhizobium trifoiii. Genet. Res. (Camb.) 32, 311–314.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1984 Springer-Verlag/Wien
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Legocki, R.P., Szalay, A.A. (1984). Molecular Biology of Stem Nodulation. In: Verma, D.P.S., Hohn, T. (eds) Genes Involved in Microbe-Plant Interactions. Plant Gene Research. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-8739-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-8739-5_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-8741-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-8739-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive