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JXB Advance Access originally published online on April 11, 2005
Journal of Experimental Botany 2005 56(416):1643-1650; doi:10.1093/jxb/eri160
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© The Author [2005]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved.

RESEARCH PAPER

Grafting between model legumes demonstrates roles for roots and shoots in determining nodule type and host/rhizobia specificity

Dasharath P. Lohar and Kathryn A. VandenBosch*

Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, 1445 Gortner Avenue, 250 Biological Sciences, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +1 612 625 1738. E-mail: kvandenb{at}cbs.umn.edu

Previous grafting experiments have demonstrated that legume shoots play a critical role in symbiotic development of nitrogen-fixing root nodules by regulating nodule number. Here, reciprocal grafting experiments between the model legumes Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula were carried out to investigate the role of the shoot in the host-specificity of legume–rhizobia symbiosis and nodule type. Lotus japonicus is nodulated by Mesorhizobium loti and makes determinate nodules, whereas M. truncatula is nodulated by Sinorhizobium meliloti and makes indeterminate nodules. When inoculated with M. loti, L. japonicus roots grafted on M. truncatula shoots produced determinate nodules identical in appearance to those produced on L. japonicus self-grafted roots. Moreover, the hypernodulation phenotype of L. japonicus har1-1 roots grafted on wild-type M. truncatula shoots was restored to wild type when nodulated with M. loti. Thus, L. japonicus shoots appeared to be interchangeable with M. truncatula shoots in the L. japonicus root/M. loti symbiosis. However, M. truncatula roots grafted on L. japonicus shoots failed to induce nodules after inoculation with S. meliloti or a mixture of S. meliloti and M. loti. Instead, only early responses to S. meliloti such as root hair tip swelling and deformation, plus induction of the early nodulation reporter gene MtENOD11:GUS were observed. The results indicate that the L. japonicus shoot does not support normal symbiosis between the M. truncatula root and its microsymbiont S. meliloti, suggesting that an unidentified shoot-derived factor may be required for symbiotic progression in indeterminate nodules.

Key words: Host specificity, Lotus, Medicago, Nod factor, nodule type, root, shoot


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