The legume-rhizobia symbiosis is estimated to fix per annum as much nitrogen as the fertilizer industry and is of great agronomic and ecological importance. This efficient nitrogen-fixing association occurs as a result of the formation of a new specialized organ, the root nodule, which is induced by the prokaryotic symbiont on its specific plant partner (see Nap and Bisseling, 1990). The rhizobial genes that determine the host recognition and nodulation have recently been found to specify the synthesis of excreted lipo-oligosaccharide signals (Figure 1) which are capable of eliciting, at extremely low concentrations, many of the plant responses characteristic of the bacteria themselves. These responses include the initiation of cell division, induction of specific changes in cell morphology, and triggering of a plant organogenic program leading to the formation of the nodule. This review focuses on the role of this new class of signaling molecules in host-partner recognition and nodule development in the legume-rhizobia symbiosis.
NCBI PubMed ID: 8402884Publication DOI: 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90717-5Journal NLM ID: 0413066Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Cell Press
Institutions: Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire, des Relations Plantes-Microorganismes CNRS-INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, France
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