Exploring a rhizobium to fix nitrogen in non-leguminous plants by using a tumor-formation root pathogen

Phytopathology Research

Research

Shunyuan Xiao¹  Ton Bisseling²  Youguo Li³  Ying Zhao⁴  Lixia Gao⁵  Binnian Tian⁵  Tao Chen⁵  Jiatao Xie⁵  Jiasen Cheng⁵  Zhixiao Gao⁵  Yanping Fu⁵  Daohong Jiang⁶ 

[1]Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, University of Maryland, 20850, Rockville, MD, USA

[2]Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Department of Plant Science, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

[3]State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

[4]State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

[5]College of Plant Protection, Henan Agricultural University, 450002, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, People’s Republic of China

[6]State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

[7]Hubei Key Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

[8]State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

[9]Hubei Key Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

[10]Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, 430070, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

关键词: Rhizobia;    Nitrogen fixation;    Non-leguminous plants;    Brassica napus;    Plant pathogen;    Plasmodiophora brassicae;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s42483-022-00154-w

 received in 2022-09-11, accepted in 2022-12-05,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Over 110 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer every year is used for crop production. Scientists have dreamed of enabling rhizobial nitrogen fixation in non-leguminous crops to mitigate the increasing demand for nitrogen fertilizer. However, despite decades of research, rhizobial nitrogen fixation in non-host plants has not been demonstrated. Here, we reported that an N-fixing rhizobium and a clubroot pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae exhibited a synergistic effect on fixing nitrogen in cruciferous plants. Rhizobia were found to invade P. brassicae-infected rapeseed (Brassica napus) roots in the field. The colonization of rhizobium on rapeseed roots was confirmed by co-inoculating Mesorhizobium huakuii with P. brassicae under controlled laboratory conditions. M. huakuii infection could alleviate clubroot symptoms and promote the growth of diseased rapeseeds. M. huakuii could fix nitrogen in P. brassicae-infected plants based on the results of 15N isotope dilution tests. The expression of homologs of legume genes required for symbiosis and early-nodulin genes was significantly upregulated in Arabidopsis during early infection by P. brassicae. More importantly, M. huakuii could even fix nitrogen in P. brassicae-resistant rapeseed cultivar and promote plant growth when co-inoculated with P. brassicae. Our findings provide a new avenue to understand the interaction of rhizobia with non-host plants, stimulate the exploration of fixing nitrogen in non-leguminous plants by nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, and develop a strategy for both disease control and nitrogen fixation on non-host crops.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

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