Project description:Flavonoids are stress-inducible metabolites important for plant-microbe interactions. In contrast to their well-known function in initiating rhizobia nodulation in legumes, it is unclear whether and how flavonoids may contribute to plant stress resistance through affecting non-nodulating bacteria in the root microbiome. Here we show how flavonoids preferentially attracts Aeromonadaceae in Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome and how flavonoid-dependent recruitment of an Aeromona spp. results in enhanced plant Na_H1 resistance.
Project description:Flavonoids are stress-inducible metabolites important for plant-microbe interactions. In contrast to their well-known function in initiating rhizobia nodulation in legumes, it is unclear whether and how flavonoids may contribute to plant stress resistance through affecting non-nodulating bacteria in the root microbiome. Here we show how flavonoids preferentially attracts Aeromonadaceae in Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome and how flavonoid-dependent recruitment of an Aeromona spp. results in enhanced plant drought resistance.
Project description:Legumes establish endosymbiotic associations with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, which they host inside root nodules. Here, specific physiological and morphological adaptations, such as the production of oxygen-binding leghemoglobin proteins and the formation of an oxygen diffusion barrier in the nodule periphery, are essential to protect the oxygen-labile bacterial nitrogenase enzyme. The molecular basis of the latter process remains elusive, as the identification of required genes is limited by the epistatic effect of nodule organogenesis over nodule infection and rhizobia accommodation. We overcame this by exploring the phenotypic diversity of Lotus japonicus accessions that uncouple nodule organogenesis from nodule infection when inoculated with a sub-compatible Rhizobium strain. Using comparative transcriptomics, we identified genes with functions associated with oxygen homeostasis and deposition of lipid polyesters on cell walls to be specifically upregulated in infected compared to uninfected nodules. As such hydrophobic modifications on cell walls are pivotal for creating diffusion barriers like the root endodermis, we focused on two Fatty acyl-CoA reductase genes that were specifically activated in the nodule or in the root endodermis. Mutant lines in a Fatty acyl-CoA reductase gene expressed exclusively in the nodule endodermis showed had decreased suberization of this cell layer and increased nodule permeability compared to wild type plants. Oxygen concentrations were significantly increased in the inner cortex of mutant nodules, which correlated with reduced nitrogen fixation rates, and impaired shoot growth. These results provide the first genetic evidence for the formation of the nodule oxygen diffusion barrier, a key adaptation enabling nitrogen fixation in legume nodules.
Project description:Legumes can utilize atmospheric nitrogen via symbiotic nitrogen fixation, but this process is inhibited by high soil inorganic nitrogen. So far, how high nitrogen inhibits N2 fixation in mature nodules is still poorly understood. Here we construct a co-expression network in soybean nodule and find that a dynamic and reversible transcriptional network underlies the high N inhibition of N2 fixation. Intriguingly, several NAC transcription factors (TFs), designated as Soybean Nitrogen Associated NAPs (SNAPs), are amongst the most connected hub TFs. The nodules of snap1/2/3/4 quadruple mutants show less sensitivity to the high N inhibition of nitrogenase activity and acceleration of senescence. Integrative analysis shows that these SNAP TFs largely influence the high N transcriptional response through direct regulation of a subnetwork of senescence-associated genes and transcriptional regulators. We propose that the SNAP-mediated transcriptional network may trigger nodule senescence in response to high N.
Project description:Legumes interact with soil microbes, leading to the development of nitrogen-fixing root nodules and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) roots. While nodule initiation by diffusible lipochitooligosaccharide (LCO) Nod-factors of bacterial origin (Nod-LCOs) is well characterized, diffusible AM fungal signals were only recently identified as sulphated and non-sulphated LCOs (sMyc-LCOs and nsMyc-LCOs). Applying Myc-LCOs in parallel to Nod-LCOs, we used GeneChips to detail the global programme of gene expression in response to the external application of symbiotic LCOs.
Project description:Microbiome sequencing model is a Named Entity Recognition (NER) model that identifies and annotates microbiome nucleic acid sequencing method or platform in texts. This is the final model version used to annotate metagenomics publications in Europe PMC and enrich metagenomics studies in MGnify with sequencing metadata from literature. For more information, please refer to the following blogs: http://blog.europepmc.org/2020/11/europe-pmc-publications-metagenomics-annotations.html https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/service-news/enriched-metadata-fields-mgnify-based-text-mining-associated-publications
Project description:Legumes interact with rhizobial bacteria to form nitrogen-fixing root nodules. Host signalling following mutual recognition ensures a specific response, but is only partially understood. Focusing on the stage of epidermal infection with Mesorhizobium loti, we analysed endogenous small RNAs (sRNAs) of the model legume Lotus japonicus to investigate their involvement in host response regulation. We used Illumina sequencing to annotate the L. japonicus sRNA-ome and isolate infection-responsive sRNAs, followed by candidate-based functional characterization. Sequences from four libraries revealed 219 novel L. japonicus micro RNAs (miRNAs) from 114 newly assigned families, and 76 infection-responsive sRNAs. Unlike infection-associated coding genes such as NODULE INCEPTION (NIN), a micro RNA 172 (miR172) isoform showed strong accumulation in dependency of both Nodulation (Nod) factor and compatible rhizobia. The genetics of miR172 induction support the existence of distinct epidermal and cortical signalling events. MIR172a promoter activity followed a previously unseen pattern preceding infection thread progression in epidermal and cortical cells. Nodule-associated miR172a expression was infection-independent, representing the second of two genetically separable activity waves. The combined data provide a valuable resource for further study, and identify miR172 as an sRNA marking successful epidermal infection. We show that miR172 acts upstream of several APETALA2-type (AP2) transcription factors, and suggest that it has a role in fine-tuning AP2 levels during bacterial symbiosis.
Project description:Legumes interact with nodulating bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia for plant use. This nitrogen fixation takes place within root nodules that form after infection of root hairs by compatible rhizobia. Using cDNA microarrays, we monitored gene expression in soybean (Glycine max) inoculated with the nodulating bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum 4, 8, and 16 days after inoculation (dai), time points that coincided with nodule development and the onset of nitrogen fixation. This experiment identified several thousand genes that were differentially expressed in response to B. japonicum inoculation. Expression of 27 genes was analyzed by qRT-PCR and their expression patterns mimicked the microarray results confirming integrity of analyses. The microarray results suggest that B. japonicum reduces plant defense responses during nodule development. In addition, the data revealed a high level of regulatory complexity (transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational, post-translational) that is likely essential for development of the symbiosis and adjustment to an altered nutritional status. Keywords = symbiosis Keywords = nodulation Keywords = rhizobium Keywords = defense Keywords = ANOVA Keywords = plant loop design, 7 samples, 7 comparison, 2 technical repeats including dye swaps, 4 biological repeats
Project description:Several studies have shown that plant hormones play key roles during legume-rhizobia symbiosis. For instance, auxins can induce formation of nodule-like structures (NLS) on legume roots in the absence of rhizobia. Furthermore, these NLS can be colonized by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which favor nitrogen fixation compared to regular roots and subsequently increase plant yield. Interestingly, auxin also induces similar NLS in cereal roots. While several genetic studies have identified plant genes controlling NLS formation in legumes, no studies have investigated the genes involved in NLS formation in cereals. In this study, we performed a comprehensive RNA sequencing experiment to identify genes differentially expressed during NLS formation in rice at different stages and identified several promising genes for control of NLS based on their biological and molecular functions.