Hopanoids Confer Robustness to Physicochemical Variability in the Niche of the Plant Symbiont Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens.

ABSTRACT: Rhizobia are a group of bacteria that increase soil nitrogen content through symbiosis with legume plants. The soil and symbiotic host are potentially stressful environments, and the soil will likely become even more stressful as the climate changes. Many rhizobia within the Bradyrhizobium clade, like Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens, possess the genetic capacity to synthesize hopanoids, steroid-like lipids similar in structure and function to cholesterol. Hopanoids are known to protect against stresses relevant to the niche of B. diazoefficiens. Paradoxically, mutants unable to synthesize the extended class of hopanoids participate in symbioses with success similar to that of the wild type, despite being delayed in root nodule initiation. Here, we show that in B. diazoefficiens

SUBMITTER: Tookmanian E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9295548 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature