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. 1984 Jul;75(3):629–633. doi: 10.1104/pp.75.3.629

A Transmissible Plant Shoot Factor Promotes Uptake Hydrogenase Activity in Rhizobium Symbionts 1

Eulogio J Bedmar 1,2, Donald A Phillips 1
PMCID: PMC1066966  PMID: 16663677

Abstract

Shoot/root grafting studies showed organ and host cultivar effects on net H2 evolution from Pisum sativum L. root nodules. Net H2 evolution from those nodules represents the sum of H2 formed by Rhizobium nitrogenase and H2 oxidized by any uptake hydrogenase present in the bacteria. Grafts between pea cultivars `JI1205' or `Alaska' and `Feltham First' in symbioses with R. leguminosarum 128C53 showed that shoots of both JI1205 and Alaska increased H2 uptake significantly (P ≤ 0.05) in Feltham First root nodules. The same plants also had less net H2 evolution at similar rates of C2H2 reduction than plants formed by grafting Feltham First shoots on Feltham First roots. Although JI1205 and Alaska shoots increased H2-uptake activity of Feltham First root nodules 28 days after the graft was made, intermediate to high levels of H2 uptake activity were still present in nodules on roots of both JI1205 and Alaska grafted to Feltham First shoots. These results indicate the presence of a transmissible shoot factor(s) which can increase uptake hydrogenase activity in a Rhizobium symbiont and show that root genotype also can influence that parameter.

Parallel grafting experiments using the same pea cultivars in symbioses with R. leguminosarum strain 300, which lacks uptake hydrogenase activity, suggested that a transmissible shoot factor(s) altered H2 formation from nitrogenase by changing the electron allocation coefficient of that enzyme complex.

The root and shoot factor(s) detected in this study had no permanent effect on strain 128C53. Bacterial cells isolated from Feltham First nodules with low H2 uptake activity formed root nodules on JI1205 and Alaska with high H2 uptake activity. Bacteroids isolated from nodules on intact JI1205, Alaska, or Feltham First plants with high, medium, or low H2 uptake activity, respectively, maintained those phenotypes during in vitro assays.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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