Sel’skokhozyaistvennaya Biologiya [Agricultural Biology], 2018, Vol. 53, ¹ 3, p. 464-474.
(how to cite this article)

doi: 10.15389/agrobiology.2018.3.464eng

UDC 631.52:581.557:575

Acknowledgments: 
Supported financially by Russian Science Foundation, grant ¹ 14-26-00094Ï

 

EVOLUTIONARY-GENETIC BASES FOR SYMBIOTIC ENGINEERING
IN PLANTS — a mini review

N.A. Provorov, O.P. Onishchuk

All-Russian Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology, Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations, 3, sh. Podbel’skogo, St. Petersburg, 196608 Russia, e-mail provorovnik@yandex.ru (✉ corresponding author), olony@yandex.ru

ORCID:
Provorov N.A. orcid.org/0000-0001-9091-9384
Onishchuk O.P. orcid.org/0000-0002-5378-7826

Received November 8, 2017

 

Microbe-plant symbioses have a great role in development and evolution of plants providing their mineral (nitrogenous, phosphorous) nutrition, resistance to pathogens and phytophagans and the developmental regulation under stress conditions (R.J. Rodriguez et al., 2009). Construction of the highly efficient symbioses should be based on the knowledge on pathways and mechanisms of partners’ coevolution occurring in the natural ecosystems and agrocenoses. Using the model of N2-fixing legume-rhizobia symbiosis we show that three major stages of its evolution should be simulated using the methods of symbiotic engineering. It should be aimed at: (i) optimization of partners’ exchange by C- and N-compounds; (ii) suppression of partners’ competition for nutrients and energy obtained from the environment; (iii) activation of partners’ altruistic interactions based on the decrease of microsymbiont survival, for example, development of non-reproducible bacteroids by rhizobia. The first approach may be achieved by an increased assimilation by bacteria of the plant-delivered dicarboxylic acids required for the bacteroid nutrition. It is based on the generation of rhizobia recombinants containing the amplified copies of nif and dct genes encoding for the synthesis and energy supply of nitrogenase. However, this approach is limited by disbalancing the biochemical and developmental processes: a significant (by 70-80 %) increase in N2-fixing activity is accompanied by a limited increase of plant biomass (by 15-20 %). This limitation can be overcome via construction of bacterial strains optimizing the plant development using the biologically active substances (phytohormones, vitamins, lumichrome) ensuring a complete involvement of N2 fixation products in the yield formation. The second approach may be implemented by improving the ability of commercial rhizobia genotypes to compete for inoculation of host plants with the aboriginal strains which possess a high virulence combined with a low N2-fixing activity. Realization of this approach is based on inactivation of genes regulating negatively the early stages of symbiosis development and on the amplification of genes regulating this development positively. The third approach may be realized via manipulations with the rhizobia eff genes identified using Tn5 mutants selected directly in fast-growing alfalfa rhizobia (Sinorhizobium meliloti) for an increased symbiotic efficiency, i.e. the impact of bacteria on the plant yield. This increase is achieved by knockout of the functions required for autonomous (ex planta) bacteria survival in soil but interfering with the symbiotic cooperation. These functions include synthesis of storage compounds (poly-β-hydroxybutyrate, glycogen), assimilation of «non-symbiotic» (not involved in the nutrition bacteroid) carbon sources (sugars) and formation of the cell surface components inducing the host defense responses (lipo- and exopolysaccharides). Prospects for the further increasing the input of «biological» nitrogen in crop nutrition are associated with establishing the nodular symbiosis in the non-legume (e.g., cereal) plants. The relevant approaches include establishment of the plant ability to form N2-fixing nodules based on modifications of homologs of legume Sym genes (G. Oldroyd et al., 2014), introduction of nif genes into mitochondria or plastids which originated from N2-fixing bacteria during symbiogenes of eukaryotic cell (G. López-Torrejón et al., 2016), and the construction of novel N2-fixing cellular organelles (ammonioplasts) providing the optimal conditions for the nitrogenase synthesis and operation.

Keywords: microbial-plant interactions, biological N2 fixation, nodule bacteria, genetic construction, symbiotic engineering, cellular organelles, symbiotrophic plant nutrition, sustainable crop production.

 

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