Sinorhizobium meliloti nifA gene exerts a pleiotropic effect on nodulation through the enhanced plant defense response

Sinorhizobium meliloti nifA gene is required for the expression of a bunch of nif and fix genes. Here, we report its pleiotropic effects on the nodule formation. Compared with wild type strain, nifA mutant sig- nificantly reduced nodule suppression rate in split-root system. The plants inoculated with mutant strain produced lower amount of daidzein and less necrotic cells on their roots. In addition, the defense genes failed to be evoked by nifA mutant at the early nodulation stage. These findings indicated that host defense response was one of the mechanisms mediated by nifA gene to regulate nodule formation during symbiosis. Even though nifA mutant could increase the number of nodules in host plant, it synthesized lower Nod factors than wild type. This suggested that nifA gene mediated multiple and diverse instances in nodulation formation.     

Extra-copy nifA enhances the nodulation efficiency of Sinorhizobium fredii

Previous investigations have shown that nifA gene is involved in nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation regulation of Rhizobium. We study the role of nifA on nodulation of leguminous plants. We found that Sinorhizobium fredii harboring multi-copy plasmid carrying the constitutively expressed Klebsiella pneumoniae nifA exhibited an increase of noduiation activity and nodulation competitiveness on soybean plants. The Nod-factor secreted by the rhizobia cells containing the multi-copied nifA was assayed,and preliminary results showed that S. fredii containing the multi-copy plasmid carrying nifA produced higher strength of Nod-factor than the rhizobia containing the same plasmid carrying the vector did.     

组成型nifA对大豆根瘤菌(Rhizobium fredii))HN01lux结瘤固氮效率的促进作用

肺炎克氏杆菌(Klebsiella pneumoniae)固氮调节基因nifA对大豆根瘤菌(Rhizobium fredii)HN01lux的结瘤固氮效率有促进作用.首先构建一个带有Kp nifA的重组质粒pXD1,使nifA在卡那霉素磷酸转移酶基因启动子控制下呈组成型表达.当质粒pXD1转移至大豆根瘤菌RfHN01lux后,获得带Kp nifA的大豆根瘤菌,其结瘤固氮效率与原始出发菌相比有明显提高,感染大豆幼苗后,大豆生物量的增加,如植株株高、植株鲜重、植株干重及大豆产量均优于原始出发菌.