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Symbiosis in legumes

NCRs make the difference

Nature Plants volume 9, pages 199–200 (2023)Cite this article

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Various clades of legume plants irreversibly modify the development of their symbiotic nitrogen-fixing microorganisms. Key transcription factors controlling this process have been identified. They are conserved and functional even in plant species that do not induce such a terminal differentiation.

The ability to use the most abundant atmospheric gas as a sole source of nitrogen confers to the legume plants a critical advantage in nitrogen-poor soils. This aptitude is provided by prokaryotic organisms — the rhizobia bacteria — that are hosted by the legumes in dedicated root nodules. Inside these symbiotic organs, rhizobia are internalized within plant cells, where they reduce dinitrogen and produce a usable and available nitrogen supply for the plant. In some species of distinct legume clades, the intracellular rhizobia (referred to as bacteroids) undergo extreme differentiation. In such cases, they enlarge and adopt spherical or elongated (and sometimes branched) shapes. In addition, their membrane permeability increases markedly, as does their genome content. Finally, these modifications are associated with the inability to achieve cell division: for this reason, this process is referred to as terminal bacteroid differentiation (TBD).

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Fig. 1: Key regulators of TBD are present and functional in legume species that do not trigger TBD.

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  1. LIPME, Université de Toulouse, INRAE, CNRS, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Benjamin Gourion

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  1. Benjamin Gourion
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Correspondence to Benjamin Gourion.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Gourion, B. NCRs make the difference. Nat. Plants 9, 199–200 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01346-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01346-8

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