10 research outputs found
Symbiotic Legume Nodules Employ Both Rhizobial Exo- and Endo-Hydrogenases to Recycle Hydrogen Produced by Nitrogen Fixation
BACKGROUND: In symbiotic legume nodules, endosymbiotic rhizobia (bacteroids) fix atmospheric N(2), an ATP-dependent catalytic process yielding stoichiometric ammonium and hydrogen gas (H(2)). While in most legume nodules this H(2) is quantitatively evolved, which loss drains metabolic energy, certain bacteroid strains employ uptake hydrogenase activity and thus evolve little or no H(2). Rather, endogenous H(2) is efficiently respired at the expense of O(2), driving oxidative phosphorylation, recouping ATP used for H(2) production, and increasing the efficiency of symbiotic nodule N(2) fixation. In many ensuing investigations since its discovery as a physiological process, bacteroid uptake hydrogenase activity has been presumed a single entity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Azorhizobium caulinodans, the nodule endosymbiont of Sesbania rostrata stems and roots, possesses both orthodox respiratory (exo-)hydrogenase and novel (endo-)hydrogenase activities. These two respiratory hydrogenases are structurally quite distinct and encoded by disparate, unlinked gene-sets. As shown here, in S. rostrata symbiotic nodules, haploid A. caulinodans bacteroids carrying single knockout alleles in either exo- or-endo-hydrogenase structural genes, like the wild-type parent, evolve no detectable H(2) and thus are fully competent for endogenous H(2) recycling. Whereas, nodules formed with A. caulinodans exo-, endo-hydrogenase double-mutants evolve endogenous H(2) quantitatively and thus suffer complete loss of H(2) recycling capability. More generally, from bioinformatic analyses, diazotrophic microaerophiles, including rhizobia, which respire H(2) may carry both exo- and endo-hydrogenase gene-sets. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In symbiotic S. rostrata nodules, A. caulinodans bacteroids can use either respiratory hydrogenase to recycle endogenous H(2) produced by N(2) fixation. Thus, H(2) recycling by symbiotic legume nodules may involve multiple respiratory hydrogenases
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Novel European free-living, non-diazotrophic Bradyrhizobium isolates from contrasting soils that lack nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes - a genome comparison
The slow-growing genus Bradyrhizobium is biologically important in soils, with different representatives
found to perform a range of biochemical functions including photosynthesis, induction of root nodules
and symbiotic nitrogen fixation and denitrification. Consequently, the role of the genus in soil ecology
and biogeochemical transformations is of agricultural and environmental significance. Some isolates of
Bradyrhizobium have been shown to be non-symbiotic and do not possess the ability to form nodules.
Here we present the genome and gene annotations of two such free-living Bradyrhizobium isolates,
named G22 and BF49, from soils with differing long-term management regimes (grassland and bare
fallow respectively) in addition to carbon metabolism analysis. These Bradyrhizobium isolates are
the first to be isolated and sequenced from European soil and are the first free-living Bradyrhizobium
isolates, lacking both nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes, to have their genomes sequenced and
assembled from cultured samples. The G22 and BF49 genomes are distinctly different with respect
to size and number of genes; the grassland isolate also contains a plasmid. There are also a number
of functional differences between these isolates and other published genomes, suggesting that this
ubiquitous genus is extremely heterogeneous and has roles within the community not including
symbiotic nitrogen fixation