Elucidation of gibberellin biosynthesis in bacteria reveals convergent evolution

Gibberellins (GAs) are crucial phytohormones involved in many aspects of plant growth and development, including plant-microbe interactions, which has led to GA production by plant-associated fungi and bacteria as well. While the GA biosynthetic pathways in plants and fungi have been elucidated and found to have arisen independently through convergent evolution, little has been uncovered about GA biosynthesis in bacteria. Some nitrogen-fixing, symbiotic, legume-associated rhizobia, including Bradyrhizobium japonicum-the symbiont of soybean-and Sinorhizobium fredii-a broad-host-nodulating species-contain a putative GA biosynthetic operon, or gene cluster. Through functional characterization of five unknown genes, we demonstrate that this operon encodes the enzymes necessary to produce GA₉, thereby elucidating bacterial GA biosynthesis. The distinct nature of these enzymes indicates that bacteria have independently evolved a third biosynthetic pathway for GA production. Furthermore, our results also reveal a central biochemical logic that is followed in all three convergently evolved GA biosynthetic pathways.