Results (
Thai) 2:
[Copy]Copied!
4 Symbiotic Dinitrogen Fixation
4.1 Dinitrogen Fixation
Nitrogen is a major component of this planet occurring either free as N2 or bound in various inorganic or organic forms. However, 98เปอร์เซ็นต์ of this global N occurs in primary rock and is unavailable to the biosphere. By far the largest part of the remainder is found in the atmosphere as N2. It has been estimated that the reservoir of atmospheric N2 is 3.9 x 1015 tonnes. Terrestrail living systems contian a total of only 1x 10-6 เปอร์เซ็นต์ of that in the atmosphere (Gallon and Chaplin1987). The ability to reduce atmospheric dinitrogen is limited to prokaryotes. Legumes and a few other plant species have the ability to fix atmospheric N2 through symbiotic relationships; for have the legumes the N2-fixation is carried out in nodules located on the plant root by prokaryotes , generally Rhizobium or Bradyrhizobium. Biological N2 fixation is estimates to convert 175 x 106 of N form dinitrogen to ammonia every year, whereas global industrial processes fix about 60 x 106 t. Soybean plants, by forming a symbiosis with the bacteria B. japonicum, can fix up to 200kgNha-1yr-1 of atmospheric N2.
The family Rhizobiaceae consists of a heterogeneous group of Gramnegative, aerobic, non-spore-forming rods that can invade and form nodules on the root and, in some instances, on the stem of leguminous plants. The slow-growing nodulation bacteria which have specific association with soybean are referred to as Bradyrhizobium. Currentry, Bradyrhizobium has only one designated species. B. japonicum. Some soybean roots can also nodulate with a fast grower named Rhizobium fredii (Sprent and Sprent 1990).
4.2 Nodule Formation
Nodulation begins when rhizobia attach themselves to epidermal cells. Epidermal cells with immature or as yet unformed root hairs are the usual sites for bacterial penetration (Bhuvaneswari et al.1980). Prior to attachment, communication between the two symbiotic partners, soybean plant and B. japonicum bacteria, is required and a certain minimum period of contact is needed. Infected hairs are always shorter than mature intact hairs, due to marked curling upon infection. At the point of infection, the root hair wall forms a depression that invaginates deeply, forming an infection thread lined by a continuation of the root hair cell wall and membrane. Infection threads may branch within a root hair (Turgeon and Bauer 1982). The infection thread, with its included dividing bacteria, grows 60 to 70 um to the base to the root hair cell. The cortex adjacent to infected root hairs becomes meristematic and produces a wedge-shaped area of dividing cells even before any infection threads enter (Turgeon and Bauer 1982). These mitoses increase cell number in the cortical layer, which then becomes the main area of infected cells ( Newcomb et al. 1979). The combination of multiple threads and branching of threads in the cortex results in penetration of many, but not all, of these cells. The peripheral uninfected area becomes the nodule cortex, which includes a scleroid layer and several vascular bundles.At some time during or following mitotic activity, rhizobia are released into cortical cells through thin areas on the tips of the infection threads. Bradyrhizobia are called bacteroids after their release into the host cell. Their cell walls have been considerably modified or, in the case of peanut entirely removed (Werner and Mörschel 1978). Mitosis in infected cortical cells ceases about 14 days after infection. Subsequent increases in the volume of infection tissue are due entirely to cell enlargement. As the nodule matures, oxygen-binding leghaemoglobin develops gradually in the host tissue and the nodule becomes pink, remaining so until it begins to senesce. As leghaemoglobin forms, bacteria cease dividing, and dinitrogen fixation commences (Lersten and Carlson 1987).
The time-course of each these stages has been described by Turgeon and Bauer (1982). Bacterial attachment to root hairs occurs within minutes of inoculation and is followed, within 12h, by marked curling of root hairs. Infection threads, first visible within 24h of infection, reach the base of the root hair by 48h after inoculation. Anticlinal divisions of the adjacent cortical cells has already occurred, giving rise to nodule primordia. Infection thread penetration of this extensively dividing meristem is not observed until between 48 to 96h after inoculation. Bassett et al. (1977) noted that the bacteria are released from the infection thread to form bacteroids within 7 to 10 days after inoculation. A spherical mass of cytoplasmically rich cells, which have been invaded by infection threads, divide and differentiate into the central zone of N2-fixing cells within 12 to 18 dats after inoculation (Newcomb et al.1979).
4.3 Recognition Between Symbiotic Partners
The molecular mechanisms for recognition between (Brady)rhizobium and soybean can be considered as a form of interorganismal cell-to-cell communication. A precise exchange of molecular signals between the host plant and bradyrhizobia over space and time is essential to the development of effective root nodules. The first apparent exchange of signals involves the secretion of phenolic compounds (flavonoids, flavones and isflavones) by soybean plants (Peters and Verma 1990). These signal compounds are often excreted by the portion of the root with emerging root hairs, a region that is highly susceptible to infection by bradyrhizobia (Verma 1992). These compounds activate the expression of nod genes in bradyrhizobia, stimulating production of the bacterial nod factor (Kondorosi 1992). This nod factor has been identified as a lipo-oligosaccharide (Carlson et al. 1993), able to induce many of the early events in nodule development, including deformation and curling of plant root hairs, the initiation of cortical cell divisions, and induction of root nodule meristems (Dénarié and Roche 1992). The isoflavones daidzein and genistein are the major components of soybean root excretions responsible for inducing the nod genes of B. japonicum (Kosslak et al. 1987). These substances are active at very low concentrations (10-7 to 10-8 M) and stimulate bacterial nod gene expression within minutes.
Plant lectins play a major role in the initiation of infection. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins produced by legumes and are recognized by bacterial receptor molecules. Legumes of different cross-inoculation groups make lectins with different sugar-binding specificities. Lectins are found in seeds, roots, leaves, and stems. Those found on the root are often concentrated in the area where nodule initiation occurs. Lectins are thought to have two major roles in N-fixation symbioses. First, lectins are important in accumulating rhizobia on root hairs through adsorption of bacterial cells to the plant (non-biovar-specific). The second function plays a host-specific role in infection. In previous work, the mechanism of recognition in the B. japonnicum soybean symbiosis was investigated by using a mutant of B. japonicum strain HS111, which exhibits a delayed-nodulation phenotype (Halverson and Stacey 1984, 1985). The nodulation phenotype of mutant strain HS111 is the result of its insbility to promptly initiate infection leading to subsequent nodulation. The defect in initiation of nodulation in HS111 can be phenotypically reversed by stimulating the plant rhizosphere through preinoculation with soybean root exudate, soybean seed lectin, or root-secreted components prior to inoculation.
4.4 Biochemistry and Physiology
Nitrogenase, which comprises 30% of total protein in infected cells, has been purified from all known types of N2-fixing organisms, with the exception of archaebacteria (Sprent and Sprent 1990). Nitrogenases are known to be made up of two fairly distinct parts, dinitrogenase reductase (Fe-protein), which is an electron carrier, and dinitrogenase (Mo-Fe protein), which is the enzyme responsible for the reduction of N2.
The process of N2 fixation is very costly in terms of plant energy requirement. It has been estimated that 5 to 10g of carbon are required for 1 g N fixed from N2. In addition, carbon substates are required for the subsequent assimilation of ammonium into organic compounds and for nodule growth and maintenance (Day and Copeland 1991). A number of studies have shown that current photosynthate, tranlocated into nodules as sucrose, is preferentially used to support N2 fixation (Kouchi and Nakaji 1985). The active uptake of disaccharides into bacteroids has been demonstrated for fast-growing Rhizobium species, whereas slow-growing Bradyrhizobium accumulate disaccharides only by passive diffusion. Feeding experiments carried out in several laboratories with 13C or 14C-labelled precursors have shown that label is converted rapidly from sucrose into the dicarboxylic acids malate and succinate in nodules and that these are the compounds supplied to the bacteroid in quantity.
The nitrogenase enzyme complex inside the bacteroid is extremely sensitive to inactivation by O2. On the other hand, O is required to support the highly active respiratory processes that take place aerobically in the plant and bacteroid compartments. A nodule gaseous diffusion barrier, composed of water-filled intercellular pores located within the nodule cortex, regulates oxygen flux from the rhizosphere into the nodule and prevents nitrogenase inhibition by O2. Leghaemoglobin, which occurs in the plant cytoplasm of infected cells, plays a key role in maintaining a low concentration of free O. This suggests that leghaemoglobin acts as an O2 buffer in the nodule, and facilitates the transport of O2 at a strictly controlled concentration to rapidly respiring bacteroids (Day and Copeland 1991). The free O concentration inside nodules is around 10nM, a concentration at which oxidative phosphorylation is no longer possible. Mito
Being translated, please wait..