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Volume 153, Issue 9

Host-specific regulation of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in biovar Free

Abstract

Strains of bv. () able to form effective nodules on (Caucasian clover, CC) form ineffective nodules on (white clover, WC), whereas strains that form effective nodules on WC usually do not nodulate CC. Here, we investigate the genetic basis of the host-specific nitrogen-fixation phenotype of CC rhizobia. A cosmid library of the symbiotic plasmid from the WC rhizobium strain NZP514 was introduced into the CC rhizobium strain ICC105. An 18 kb 718 fragment containing the and genes of NZP514 that imparted the Fix phenotype was identified. Tn mutagenesis of this region revealed that the , and genes were required for the Fix phenotype, but that the gene was not. Introduction of several plasmids containing NZP514 genes into an ICC105 mutant strain demonstrated that the NifA protein of ICC105 was able to activate expression of the NZP514 genes but not the ICC105 genes in WC nodules. Reporter gene fusion studies showed that the host-specific regulation of the genes depended on the DNA region between the promoters of the divergently transcribed and genes. We hypothesize that a protein acting either in response to a host-specific signal or in the absence of such a signal is able to bind upstream of the NifA-binding sites and interact with NifA to prevent it activating gene expression.

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Keyword(s): CC, Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum) , Rlt, Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii and WC, white clover (Trifolium repens)
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2007-09-01
2024-05-08
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Host-specific regulation of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii
Microbiology 153, 3184 (2007); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.2007/006924-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2007/006924-0
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