Plant survival to a potential plethora of diverse environmental insults is underpinned by coordinated communication amongst organs to help shape effective responses to these environmental challenges at the whole plant level. This interorgan communication is supported by a complex signal network that regulates growth, development and environmental responses. Nitric oxide (NO) has emerged as a key signalling molecule in plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGroup VII ethylene response factors (ERF-VII) are plant-specific transcription factors (TFs) known for their role in the activation of hypoxia-responsive genes under low oxygen stress but also in plant endogenous hypoxic niches. However, their function in the microaerophilic nitrogen-fixing nodules of legumes has not yet been investigated. We investigated regulation and the function of the two Medicago truncatula ERF-VII TFs (MtERF74 and MtERF75) in roots and nodules, MtERF74 and MtERF75 in response to hypoxia stress and during the nodulation process using an RNA interference strategy and targeted proteolysis of MtERF75.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrought is an environmental stress that strongly impacts plants. It affects all stages of growth and induces profound disturbances that influence all cellular functions. Legumes can establish a symbiosis with Rhizobium-type bacteria, whose function is to fix atmospheric nitrogen in organs called nodules and to meet plant nitrogen needs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrought stress has become one of the most uncontrolled and unpredictable constraints on crop production. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impacts of two different strains on terminal drought tolerance induction in two faba bean genotypes cultivated in Algeria, Aquadulce and Maltais. To this end, we measured physiological parameters-osmoprotectants accumulation, oxidative stress markers and enzyme activities-to assess the effect of inoculation on under terminal water deficiency conditions in greenhouse trials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitrate reductase (NR) is the first enzyme of the nitrogen reduction pathway in plants, leading to the production of ammonia. However, in the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between legumes and rhizobia, atmospheric nitrogen (N) is directly reduced to ammonia by the bacterial nitrogenase, which questions the role of NR in symbiosis. Next to that, NR is the best-characterized source of nitric oxide (NO) in plants, and NO is known to be produced during the symbiosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction between legumes and rhizobia leads to the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between plant and bacteria. This is characterized by the formation of a new organ, the nodule, which facilitates the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen (N2) by nitrogenase through the creation of a hypoxic environment. Nitric oxide (NO) accumulates at each stage of the symbiotic process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn legumes, phytoglobins (Phytogbs) are known to regulate nitric oxide (NO) during early phase of the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis and to buffer oxygen in functioning nodules. However, their expression profile and respective role in NO control at each stage of the symbiosis remain little-known. We first surveyed the Phytogb genes occurring in Medicago truncatula genome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction between legumes and bacteria of rhizobia type results in a beneficial symbiotic relationship characterized by the formation of new root organs, called nodules. Within these nodules the bacteria, released in plant cells, differentiate into bacteroids and fix atmospheric nitrogen through the nitrogenase activity. This mutualistic interaction has evolved sophisticated signaling networks to allow rhizobia entry, colonization, bacteroid differentiation and persistence in nodules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnexpected and increasingly frequent extreme precipitation events result in soil flooding or waterlogging. Legumes have the capacity to establish a symbiotic relationship with endosymbiotic atmospheric dinitrogen-fixing rhizobia, thus contributing to natural nitrogen soil enrichment and reducing the need for chemical fertilization. The impact of waterlogging on nitrogen fixation and legume productivity needs to be considered for crop improvement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction between legumes and rhizobia leads to the establishment of a beneficial symbiotic relationship. Recent advances in legume - rhizobium symbiosis revealed that various reactive oxygen and nitrogen species including nitric oxide (NO) play important roles during this process. Nodule development occurs with a transition from a normoxic environment during the establishment of symbiosis to a microoxic environment in functional nodules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant glutathione peroxidases (Gpx) catalyse the reduction of various peroxides, such as hydrogen peroxide (HO), phospholipid hydroperoxides and peroxynitrite, but at the expense of thioredoxins rather than glutathione. A main function of plant Gpxs is the protection of biological membranes by scavenging phospholipid hydroperoxides, but some Gpxs have also been associated with HO sensing and redox signal transduction. Nitric oxide (NO) is not only known to induce the expression of Gpx family members, but also to inhibit Gpx activity, presumably through the S-nitrosylation of conserved cysteine residues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRoot hairs are involved in water and nutrient uptake, and thereby in plant autotrophy. In legumes, they also play a crucial role in establishment of rhizobial symbiosis. To obtain a holistic view of Medicago truncatula genes expressed in root hairs and of their regulation during the first hours of the engagement in rhizobial symbiotic interaction, a high throughput RNA sequencing on isolated root hairs from roots challenged or not with lipochitooligosaccharides Nod factors (NF) for 4 or 20 h was carried out.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants are sessile organisms that have evolved a complex immune system which helps them cope with pathogen attacks. However, the capacity of a plant to mobilize different defense responses is strongly affected by its physiological status. Nitrogen (N) is a major nutrient that can play an important role in plant immunity by increasing or decreasing plant resistance to pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe symbiotic interaction between legumes and nitrogen-fixing rhizobium bacteria leads to the formation of a new organ, the nodule. Early steps of the interaction are characterized by the production of bacterial Nod factors, the reorientation of root-hair tip growth, the formation of an infection thread (IT) in the root hair, and the induction of cell division in inner cortical cells of the root, leading to a nodule primordium formation. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) have been detected in early steps of the interaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe specific interaction between legumes and Rhizobium-type bacteria leads to the establishment of a symbiotic relationship characterized by the formation of new differentiated organs named nodules, which provide a niche for bacterial nitrogen (N2) fixation. In the nodules, bacteria differentiate into bacteroids with the ability to fix atmospheric N2 via nitrogenase activity. As nitrogenase is strongly inhibited by oxygen, N2 fixation is made possible by the microaerophilic conditions prevailing in the nodules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction between legumes and rhizobia leads to the establishment of a symbiotic relationship characterized by the formation of new organs called nodules, in which bacteria have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen (N2) via the nitrogenase activity. Significant nitric oxide (NO) production was evidenced in the N2-fixing nodules suggesting that it may impact the symbiotic process. Indeed, NO was shown to be a potent inhibitor of nitrogenase activity and symbiotic N2 fixation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSignificance: During the Legume-Rhizobium symbiosis, hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and nitric oxide (NO) appear to play an important signaling role in the establishment and the functioning of this interaction. Modifications of the levels of these reactive species in both partners impair either the development of the nodules (new root organs formed on the interaction) or their N(2)-fixing activity.
Recent Advances: NADPH oxidases (Noxs) have been recently described as major sources of H(2)O(2) production, via superoxide anion dismutation, during symbiosis.
Medicago truncatula is one of the most studied model plants. Nevertheless, the genome of this legume remains incompletely determined. We used RNA-Seq to characterize the transcriptome during the early organogenesis of the nodule and during its functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous signaling molecule with a broad spectrum of regulatory functions in plant growth and development. NO has been found to be involved in various pathogenic or symbiotic plant-microbe interactions. During the last decade, increasing evidence of the occurrence of NO during legume-rhizobium symbioses has been reported, from early steps of plant-bacteria interaction, to the nitrogen-fixing step in mature nodules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous molecule that participates in numerous plant signalling pathways. It is involved in plant responses to pathogens and development processes such as seed germination, flowering and stomatal closure. Using a permeable NO-specific fluorescent probe and a bacterial reporter strain expressing the lacZ gene under the control of a NO-responsive promoter, we detected NO production in the first steps, during infection threads growth, of the Medicago truncatula-Sinorhizobium meliloti symbiotic interaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitric oxide (NO) is a signaling and defense molecule of major importance in living organisms. In the model legume Medicago truncatula, NO production has been detected in the nitrogen fixation zone of the nodule, but the systems responsible for its synthesis are yet unknown and its role in symbiosis is far from being elucidated. In this work, using pharmacological and genetic approaches, we explored the enzymatic source of NO production in M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is not known how the uptake and retention of the key osmolyte K(+) in cells are mediated in growing leaf tissue. In the present study on the growing leaf 3 of barley, we have cloned the full-length coding sequence of three genes which encode putative K(+) channels (HvAKT1, HvAKT2, HvKCO1/HvTPK1), and of one gene which encodes a putative K(+) transporter (HvHAK4). The functionality of the gene products of HvAKT1 and HvAKT2 was tested through expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPotassium is a major osmolyte used by plant cells. The accumulation rates of K(+) in cells may limit the rate of expansion. In the present study, we investigated the involvement of ion channels in K(+) uptake using patch clamp technique.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the present study was to isolate clones of genes which are likely to be involved in wax deposition on barley leaves. Of particular interest were those genes which encode proteins that take part in the synthesis and further modification of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), the precursors of waxes. Previously, it had been shown that wax deposition commences within a spatially well-defined developmental zone along the growing barley leaf (Richardson et al.
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