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Microsymbiont discrimination mediated by a host-secreted peptide in Medicago truncatula
Shengming Yang1, Qi Wang1, Elena Fedorova2
1Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546.
Abstract:
The legume-rhizobial symbiosis results in the formation of root nodules that provide an ecological niche for nitrogen-fixing bacteria. However, plant-bacteria genotypic interactions can lead to wide variation in nitrogen fixation efficiency, and it is not uncommon that a bacterial strain forms functional (Fix+) nodules on one plant genotype but nonfunctional (Fix-) nodules on another. Host genetic control of this specificity is unknown. We herein report the cloning of the Medicago truncatula NFS1 gene that regulates the fixation-level incompatibility with the microsymbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti Rm41. We show that NFS1 encodes a nodule-specific cysteine-rich (NCR) peptide. In contrast to the known role of NCR peptides as effectors of endosymbionts' differentiation to nitrogen-fixing bacteroids, we demonstrate that specific NCRs control discrimination against incompatible microsymbionts. NFS1 provokes bacterial cell death and early nodule senescence in an allele-specific and rhizobial strain-specific manner, and its function is dependent on host genetic background.
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