The RPG gene of Medicago truncatula controls Rhizobium-directed polar growth during infection.

ABSTRACT: Rhizobia can infect roots of host legume plants and induce new organs called nodules, in which they fix atmospheric nitrogen. Infection generally starts with root hair curling, then proceeds inside newly formed, intracellular tubular structures called infection threads. A successful symbiotic interaction relies on infection threads advancing rapidly at their tips by polar growth through successive cell layers of the root toward developing nodule primordia. To identify a plant component that controls this tip growth process, we characterized a symbiotic mutant of Medicago truncatula, called rpg for rhizobium-directed polar growth. In this mutant, nitrogen-fixing nodules were rarely formed due to abnormally thick and slowly progressing infection threads. Root hair curling was also abnormal,

SUBMITTER: Arrighi JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2474542 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature