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Nature 425, 585-592 (9 October 2003) | doi:10.1038/nature02039; Received 16 July 2003; Accepted 11 September 2003

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Plant recognition of symbiotic bacteria requires two LysM receptor-like kinases

Simona Radutoiu1, Lene Heegaard Madsen1, Esben Bjørn Madsen1, Hubert H. Felle2, Yosuke Umehara1,4, Mette Grønlund1, Shusei Sato3, Yasukazu Nakamura3, Satoshi Tabata3, Niels Sandal1 & Jens Stougaard1

  1. Laboratory of Gene Expression, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Aarhus, Gustav Wieds Vej 10, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
  2. Botanisches Institut I, Justus-Liebig Universität, D-35390 Giessen, Germany
  3. Kazusa DNA Research Institute, Kisarazu, Chiba 292-0812, Japan
  4. Present address: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan

Correspondence to: Jens Stougaard1 Email: stougaard@mb.au.dk
The sequences for the L. japonicus ecotype Gifu NFR1 gene and mRNA are deposited in the EMBL database under accession numbers AJ575246, AJ575247, AJ575248 and AJ575249. The MG20 ecotype TAC sequences are deposited in GenBank under accession numbers LjT02D13 AP006535, LjT05B16 AP006536 and LjT211O02 AP006537.

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Although most higher plants establish a symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, symbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobia is a salient feature of legumes. Despite this host range difference, mycorrhizal and rhizobial invasion shares a common plant-specified genetic programme controlling the early host interaction. One feature distinguishing legumes is their ability to perceive rhizobial-specific signal molecules. We describe here two LysM-type serine/threonine receptor kinase genes, NFR1 and NFR5, enabling the model legume Lotus japonicus to recognize its bacterial microsymbiont Mesorhizobium loti. The extracellular domains of the two transmembrane kinases resemble LysM domains of peptidoglycan- and chitin-binding proteins, suggesting that they may be involved directly in perception of the rhizobial lipochitin-oligosaccharide signal. We show that NFR1 and NFR5 are required for the earliest physiological and cellular responses to this lipochitin-oligosaccharide signal, and demonstrate their role in the mechanism establishing susceptibility of the legume root for bacterial infection.

  1. Laboratory of Gene Expression, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Aarhus, Gustav Wieds Vej 10, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
  2. Botanisches Institut I, Justus-Liebig Universität, D-35390 Giessen, Germany
  3. Kazusa DNA Research Institute, Kisarazu, Chiba 292-0812, Japan
  4. Present address: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan

Correspondence to: Jens Stougaard1 Email: stougaard@mb.au.dk
The sequences for the L. japonicus ecotype Gifu NFR1 gene and mRNA are deposited in the EMBL database under accession numbers AJ575246, AJ575247, AJ575248 and AJ575249. The MG20 ecotype TAC sequences are deposited in GenBank under accession numbers LjT02D13 AP006535, LjT05B16 AP006536 and LjT211O02 AP006537.