Journal
SYMBIOSIS
Volume 59, Issue 2, Pages 111-120Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s13199-012-0216-9
Keywords
Symbiosis; Cyanobacteria; Nostoc; Liverwort
Categories
Funding
- Leverhulme Trust [F/00 122/AB]
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [24/C14515]
- Fulbright-Leeds University Distinguished Chair Award
- Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1052241] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In response to environmental change, the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 produces highly adapted filaments known as hormogonia that have gliding motility and serve as the agents of infection in symbioses with plants. Hormogonia sense and respond to unidentified plant-derived chemical signals that attract and guide them towards the symbiotic tissues of the host. There is increasing evidence to suggest that their interaction with host plants is regulated by chemotaxis-related signal transduction systems. The genome of N. punctiforme contains multiple sets of chemotaxis (che)-like genes. In this study we characterize the large che5 locus of N. punctiforme. Disruption of NpR0248, which encodes a putative CheR methyltransferase, results in loss of motility and significantly impairs symbiotic competency with the liverwort Blasia pusilla when compared with the parent strain. Our results suggest that chemotaxis-like elements regulate hormogonia function and hence symbiotic competency in this system.
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