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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1985 Jun;82(12):4162–4166. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.12.4162

Isolation and properties of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] mutants that nodulate in the presence of high nitrate concentrations

Bernard J Carroll 1, David L McNeil 1,*, Peter M Gresshoff 1,
PMCID: PMC397955  PMID: 16593577

Abstract

Soybean seeds [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ev. Bragg] were mutagenized with ethyl methanesulfonate. The M2 progeny (i.e., the first generation after mutagenesis) of these seeds were screened for increased nodulation under high nitrate culture conditions. Fifteen independent nitrate-tolerant symbiotic (nts) mutants were obtained from 2500 M2 families. In culture on sand with KNO3, nodule mass and nodule number in mutant lines were several-fold those of the wild type cultured under the same conditions. Inheritance of the nts character through to subsequent generations was observed in the 10 mutants tested. Mutant nts382 also nodulated more than the wild type in the absence of nitrate. Furthermore, nitrate stimulated growth in both the wild type and nts382, and these lines had similar nitrate reductase activity. These results indicate that nts382 is affected in a nodule-development regulatory gene and not in a gene related to nitrate assimilation.

Keywords: nitrate inhibition, nts mutants, nitrate-tolerant symbiosis, ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis, nitrogen fixation

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Selected References

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