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Rhizobia synthesize a class of lipo-chitin oligosaccharides that induce root hair deformation and induce the initiation of nodule structures on legume roots. These lipo-chitin oligosaccharides are tetra-and penta-lipo-oligosaccharides of N-acetylglucosamine with an acyl substitution on the nonreducing end and are commonly known as Nod factors. In this study, we demonstrate that synthetic analogs of natural product Nod factors have the same biological activities. To determine structure-activity relationships, a collection of synthetic and natural product lipo-chitin oligosaccharides was assayed on Glycine soja. All biologically active lipo-chitin oligosaccharides induced both root hair deformation and nodule initiations on C. soja. The most active lipo-chitin oligosaccharides deformed root hairs at 1O-l' M and induced nodules at 1 ng of lipo-chitin oligosaccharide per spot inoculation. Plant responses demonstrate an interdependence of backbone length and the presence of substitutions on the reducing end. Lipo-chitin oligosaccharides containing four Kacetylglucosamine residues were active only without a reducing end modification, whereas lipo-chitin oligosaccharides containing five N-acetylglucosamine residues were active only with reducing end modification. The plant thus recognizes lipo-chitin oligosaccharides without reducing end substitutions despite the importance of these modifications for host range.Signal exchange between symbiotic organisms is best understood in the Xhizobium-legume symbiosis. Species of Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, and Azorhizobium (collectively known as rhizobia) enter into a mutualistic association with legumes in which the bacteria provide reduced nitrogen to the plant and the plant provides carbon and energy '

Although Bradyrhizobium elkanii is a mutualistic symbiont of legumes, it synthesizes a phytotoxin, rhizobitoxine, that causes chlorosis on a variety of legume hosts, giving a pathogenic character to these interactions. No positive role for rhizobitoxine has been previously demonstrated. Interestingly, rhizobitoxine inhibits the rate-limiting step for ethylene biosynthesis, a plant hormone known to inhibit or down-regulate nodule development. We hypothesized that rhizobitoxine plays a positive role in nodule development through its inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis. To test this hypothesis, host plants of B. elkanii were screened for a differential nodulation response to the wild-type and rhizobitoxine mutant strains. In Vigna radiata (mungbean), the rhizobitoxine mutant strains induced many aborted nodules arrested at all stages of pre-emergent and post-emergent development and formed significantly fewer mature nodules than the wild type. Experiments revealed that nodulation of mungbean plants is sensitive to exogenous ethylene, and that the ethylene inhibitors aminoethoxyvinylglycine and Co2+ were able to partially restore a wild-type nodulation pattern to the rhizobitoxine mutants. This is the first demonstration of a nodulation phenotype of the rhizobitoxine mutants and suggests that rhizobitoxine plays a positive and necessary role in Rhizobium-legume symbiosis through its inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis.

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