Skip to main content
PMC home page
The EMBO Journal logoLink to The EMBO Journal
. 1983;2(6):947–952. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01526.x

Cloning of the symbiotic region of Rhizobium leguminosarum: the nodulation genes are between the nitrogenase genes and a nifA-like gene

JAllan Downie 1,*, Qing-Sheng Ma 1, Celia D Knight 1, Gerd Hombrecher 1, Andrew WB Johnston 1
PMCID: PMC555213  PMID: 16453461

Abstract

The region of the Rhizobium leguminosarum plasmid pRL1JI involved in nodulation and nitrogen fixation has been cloned on a series of four overlapping cosmid clones. These clones represent ˜60 kb of pRL1JI DNA on which a series of Tn5-induced fix and nod alleles have been identified, with the two most distant alleles being separated by ˜45 kb of DNA. The mutant alleles fell into three groups, two clusters of fix alleles separated by one cluster of nod alleles. Within one group of fix alleles, DNA homologous to the nifA gene of Klebsiella pneumoniae has been identified, whereas the pRL1JI DNA homologous to the K. pneumoniae nitrogenase genes is present within the other group of fix alleles.

Keywords: Rhizobium, nitrogen fixation, nodulation, nifA gene

Full text

PDF

Images in this article

948Fig. 1.
on p.948
949Fig. 3.
on p.949
950Fig. 4.
on p.950

Selected References

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

  1. Beringer J. E. R factor transfer in Rhizobium leguminosarum. J Gen Microbiol. 1974 Sep;84(1):188–198. doi: 10.1099/00221287-84-1-188. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buchanan-Wollaston V., Cannon M. C., Beynon J. L., Cannon F. C. Role of the nifA gene product in the regulation of nif expression in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature. 1981 Dec 24;294(5843):776–778. doi: 10.1038/294776a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bánfalvi Z., Sakanyan V., Koncz C., Kiss A., Dusha I., Kondorosi A. Location of nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes on a high molecular weight plasmid of R. meliloti. Mol Gen Genet. 1981;184(2):318–325. doi: 10.1007/BF00272925. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Clewell D. B., Helinski D. R. Supercoiled circular DNA-protein complex in Escherichia coli: purification and induced conversion to an opern circular DNA form. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1969 Apr;62(4):1159–1166. doi: 10.1073/pnas.62.4.1159. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dixon R., Eady R. R., Espin G., Hill S., Iaccarino M., Kahn D., Merrick M. Analysis of regulation of Klebsiella pneumoniae nitrogen fixation (nif) gene cluster with gene fusions. Nature. 1980 Jul 10;286(5769):128–132. doi: 10.1038/286128a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Drummond M., Clements J., Merrick M., Dixon R. Positive control and autogenous regulation of the nifLA promoter in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature. 1983 Jan 27;301(5898):302–307. doi: 10.1038/301302a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Espin G., Alvarez-Morales A., Cannon F., Dixon R., Merrick M. Cloning of the glnA, ntrB and ntrC genes of Klebsiella pneumoniae and studies of their role in regulation of the nitrogen fixation (nif) gene cluster. Mol Gen Genet. 1982;186(4):518–524. doi: 10.1007/BF00337959. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Friedman A. M., Long S. R., Brown S. E., Buikema W. J., Ausubel F. M. Construction of a broad host range cosmid cloning vector and its use in the genetic analysis of Rhizobium mutants. Gene. 1982 Jun;18(3):289–296. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90167-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Grunstein M., Hogness D. S. Colony hybridization: a method for the isolation of cloned DNAs that contain a specific gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Oct;72(10):3961–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.10.3961. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hohn B. In vitro packaging of lambda and cosmid DNA. Methods Enzymol. 1979;68:299–309. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(79)68021-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kennedy C., Robson R. L. Activation of nif gene expression in Azotobacter by the nifA gene product of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature. 1983 Feb 17;301(5901):626–628. doi: 10.1038/301626a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Murray N. E., Brammar W. J., Murray K. Lambdoid phages that simplify the recovery of in vitro recombinants. Mol Gen Genet. 1977 Jan 7;150(1):53–61. doi: 10.1007/BF02425325. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ow D. W., Ausubel F. M. Regulation of nitrogen metabolism genes by nifA gene product in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature. 1983 Jan 27;301(5898):307–313. doi: 10.1038/301307a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Rigby P. W., Dieckmann M., Rhodes C., Berg P. Labeling deoxyribonucleic acid to high specific activity in vitro by nick translation with DNA polymerase I. J Mol Biol. 1977 Jun 15;113(1):237–251. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(77)90052-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rosenberg C., Boistard P., Dénarié J., Casse-Delbart F. Genes controlling early and late functions in symbiosis are located on a megaplasmid in Rhizobium meliloti. Mol Gen Genet. 1981;184(2):326–333. doi: 10.1007/BF00272926. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Ruvkun G. B., Ausubel F. M. Interspecies homology of nitrogenase genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Jan;77(1):191–195. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.1.191. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Smith H. O. Recovery of DNA from gels. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):371–380. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65048-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sundaresan V., Jones J. D., Ow D. W., Ausubel F. M. Klebsiella pneumoniae nifA product activates the Rhizobium meliloti nitrogenase promoter. Nature. 1983 Feb 24;301(5902):728–732. doi: 10.1038/301728a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The EMBO Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES