Project description:The soybean–Bradyrhizobium symbiosis enables symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) within root nodules, reducing reliance on synthetic N fertilizers. However, nitrogen fixation is transient, peaking several weeks after Bradyrhizobium colonization and declining as nodules senesce in coordination with host development. To investigate the regulatory mechanisms governing SNF and senescence, we conducted a temporal transcriptomic analysis of soybean nodules colonized with Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens USDA110. Weekly nodule samples (2 to 10 weeks postinoculation, wpi) were analyzed using RNA and small RNA sequencing, and acetylene reduction assays assessed nitrogenase activity from 4 to 7 wpi. We identified three major nodule developmental phases: early development (2 to 3 wpi), nitrogen fixation (3 to 8 wpi), and senescence (8 to 10 wpi). Soybean showed extensive transcriptional reprogramming during senescence, whereas Bradyrhizobium underwent major transcriptional shifts early in development before stabilizing during nitrogen fixation. We identified seven soybean genes and several microRNAs as candidate biomarkers of nitrogen fixation, including lipoxygenases (Lox), suggesting roles for oxylipin metabolism. Soy hemoglobin-2 (Hb2), previously classified as nonsymbiotic, was upregulated during senescence, implicating oxidative stress responses within aging nodules. Upregulation of the Bradyrhizobium paa operon and rpoH during senescence suggesting metabolic adaptation for survival beyond symbiosis. Additionally, Bradyrhizobium nif gene expression showed stage-specific regulation, with nifK peaking at 2 wpi, nifD and nifA at 2 and 10 wpi, and nifH, nifW, and nifS at 10 wpi. These findings provide insights into SNF regulation and nodule aging, revealing temporal gene expression patterns that could inform breeding or genetic engineering strategies to enhance nitrogen fixation in soybeans and other legume crops.
Project description:During the legume-rhizobium symbiosis, free-living soil bacteria known as rhizobia trigger the formation of root nodules. The rhizobia infect these organs and adopt an intracellular lifestyle within the symbiotic nodule cells where they become nitrogen-fixing bacteroids. Several legume lineages enforce their symbionts into an extreme cellular differentiation, comprising cell enlargement and genome endoreduplication. The antimicrobial peptide transporter BclA is a major determinant of this differentiation process in Bradyrhizobium sp. ORS285, a symbiont of Aeschynomene spp.. In the absence of BclA, Bradyrhizobium sp. ORS285 proceeds until the intracellular infection of nodule cells but the bacteria cannot differentiate into enlarged polyploid bacteroids and fix nitrogen. The nodule bacteria of the bclA mutant constitute thus an intermediate stage between the free-living soil bacteria and the intracellular nitrogen-fixing bacteroids. Metabolomics on whole nodules of Aeschynomene afraspera and Aeschynomene indica infected with the ORS285 wild type or the bclA mutant revealed 47 metabolites that differentially accumulated concomitantly with bacteroid differentiation. Bacterial transcriptome analysis of these nodules discriminated nodule-induced genes that are specific to differentiated and nitrogen-fixing bacteroids and others that are activated in the host microenvironment irrespective of bacterial differentiation and nitrogen fixation. These analyses demonstrated that the intracellular settling of the rhizobia in the symbiotic nodule cells is accompanied with a first transcriptome switch involving several hundreds of upregulated and downregulated genes and a second switch accompanying the bacteroid differentiation, involving less genes but that are expressed to extremely elevated levels. The transcriptomes further highlighted the dynamics of oxygen and redox regulation of gene expression during nodule formation and we discovered that bclA represses the expression of non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters suggesting a non-symbiotic function of BclA. Together, our data uncover the metabolic and gene expression changes that accompany the transition from intracellular bacteria into differentiated nitrogen-fixing bacteroids.