Legume plant know their friends from their enemies , and now , researchers found how they do it at the molecular level . plant life recognize good microbe and keep harmful I out , which is significant for hefty flora production and ball-shaped nutrient security .
Scientists have now discovered how legumes use small , well - defined motifs in receptor proteins to take molecular signals produced by both pathogenic and symbiotic microbes . These remarkable findings have enabled the researchers to reprogram immune receptors into symbiotic receptors , which is the first milepost for engineering symbiotic atomic number 7 - fixing mutualism into food grain crops .
Image : Christina Krönauer and Damiano Lironi . Legume plant life fix atmospheric atomic number 7 with the help of symbiotic bacteria , called Rhizobia , which colonize their roots . Therefore , plants have to be able-bodied to precisely recognize their symbiont to avert infection by morbific bug . To this ending , legumes use different LysM receptor protein locate on the out cell control surface of their roots . In the study issue in Science , an external squad of researchers guide by Aarhus University show that morbific ( chitin ) or symbiotic signalling mote ( Nod factors ) are recognized by little molecular motifs on the receptors that organize the point output towards either antimicrobial defence or symbiosis .
All land plants have LysM sense organ that ensure detection of various microbial signals , but how a plant decide to mount a symbiotic or an immune response towards an incoming bug is unknown . “ We started by asking a canonical and , perhaps at starting time , naïve question : Can we identify the important elements by using very similar receptors , but with opposing function as desktop for a systematic analytic thinking ? ” says Zoltán Bozsoki . “ The first crystal structure of a Nod factor receptor was a breakthrough . It generate us a better understanding of these sense organ and guided our efforts to organise them in plant . ” Kira Gysel adds .
The field combines the body structure - assist dissection of defined region in LysM sensory receptor for biochemical experiments and in planta running psychoanalysis . “ To really sympathize these sensory receptor , we needed to crop closely together and meld morphological biology and biochemistry with the taxonomic operational trial in flora , ” says Simon Boje Hansen . By using this approach , the researchers identified previously unsung motif in the LysM1 domain of chitin and Nod factor receptors as determinants for resistance and mutualism . ” It turns out that there are only very few , but important , balance that separate an immune from a symbiotic sense organ and we now distinguish these and demonstrate for the first time that it is possible to reprogram LysM receptors by change these residuum , ” says Kasper Røjkjær Andersen .
The prospicient - term goal is to transport the unique atomic number 7 - fixing power that legume industrial plant have into grain plants to restrain the need for polluting commercial atomic number 7 fertilizers and to benefit and endow the poor people on Earth . Simona Radutoiu resolve , “ We now bring home the bacon the conceptual understanding required for a step-by-step and noetic engine room of LysM receptors , which is an indispensable first pace towards this ambitious goal ” .
For more selective information : Department of Molecular Biology and GeneticsAarhus University , DenmarkAssistant Professor Kasper Røjkjær Andersen[email protected]www.mbg.au.dk
