How do less-expensive nitrogen alternatives affect legume sanctions on rhizobia?

ABSTRACT: The evolutionary stability of mutualistic interactions involving multiple partners requires "sanctioning"-the ability to influence the fitness of each partner based on its respective contribution. Sanctions must be sensitive to even small differences if even slightly less-beneficial partners could gain a fitness advantage by diverting resources away from the mutualistic service toward their own reproductive fitness. Here, we test whether legume hosts sanction even mediocre N₂-fixing rhizobial strains by influencing either nodule growth (which limits rhizobial cell numbers) or carbon accumulation (polyhydroxybutryate or PHB) per rhizobial cell. We also test whether sanctions depend on the availability of less-expensive nitrogen alternatives, either as nitrate or coinoculation wit

SUBMITTER: Oono R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7548176 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature