Final Report Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER20307 Lipopolysaccharide Structures and Genes Required for Root Nodule Development August 1, 2004 to July 31, 2008
- Marquette Univ., Milwaukee,WI (United States)
This project dealt with the plant-bacterial symbiosis that gives rise to root nodules on leguminous plants in which the bacteria carry out nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation, like carbon dioxide fixation, is essential for life on planet earth, and this symbiosis is estimated to account for half of all nitrogen fixed on land. Aside from being important for the sustenance of global life, this ability allows legumes to grow without nitrogen fertilizers. Basic studies such as this project are aimed at understanding the symbiosis well enough that eventually it can be engineered into important crop species so that they no longer depend on nitrogen fertilizer for growth. The production and distribution of excessive fertilizer needed for optimal crop yields is responsible for a significant portion of the energy costs in agriculture. The specific aims of this work were to further the understanding of a bacterial factor that is essential for the symbiotic infection process. This factor is a bacterial surface molecule, lipopolysaccharide O antigen. In this project we showed that, not only the presence, but the specific structure of this molecule is crucial for infection. Although the success of bacterial infections in many pathogenic and mutualistic interactions have been shown to depend on intact O antigen, it has been very rare to establish that specific features of the structure are important. One of the features in this case is the presence of one additional methyl group on one sugar in the O antigen. It is very surprising that such a minor change should have an observable effect. This work sets the stage for biochemical studies of possible plant receptors that may be involved. During the course of this grant period, we developed a method of testing the importance of this bacterial component at stages of nodule development beyond the step that is blocked by null mutation. The method works adequately for this purpose and is being improved. It has implications for testing the roles of other important bacterial factors at multiple stages of nodule development. The project also investigated the biosynthesis of this bacterial factor. It has a complex structure and the first accomplishment was the determination of the sequences of genetic regions known to be important. Next the discovered genes were mutated to identify the 26 that are required for its synthesis. In addition, six others were discovered that are believed to change its structure under various environmental conditions. By studying mutants affected in specific genes, genes were associated with each of the predicted steps in the biosynthesis. Current work is testing the predicted biosynthetic model with studies conducted in vitro with bacterial extracts. Overall, the work funded by this grant establishes this system as a model for host-bacterial interactions based on specific polysaccharide structure. All areas that are needed for a comprehensive model have been significantly advanced: the biological function, the structural features that are crucial, the complete set of bacterial genes involved, and a model for the biosynthesis.
- Research Organization:
- Marquette Univ., Milwaukee,WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-98ER20307
- OSTI ID:
- 943473
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/20307-Final Report; TRN: US201112%%119
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
AGRICULTURE
BACTERIA
BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS
BIOSYNTHESIS
CARBON DIOXIDE FIXATION
CROPS
ENERGY ACCOUNTING
FERTILIZERS
GENES
GENETICS
IN VITRO
LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDES
MUTANTS
NITROGEN
NITROGEN FIXATION
POLYSACCHARIDES
SACCHAROSE
SYMBIOSIS
SYNTHESIS
TESTING
Rhizobia
symbiosis
legume
O antigen
lipopolysaccharide
genetics
biosynthesis
infection
nodule development
nitrogen fixation