Associative Nitrogen Fixation by Klebsiella spp.: Adhesion Sites and Inoculation Effects on Grass Roots

Abstract

Adhesion sites on grass roots for Klebsiella strains carrying type 3 or type 1 fimbriae or both were determined. Adhesion of the strains to the roots of Poa pratensis and Festuca rubra was highly localized; the bacteria adhered strongly to root hairs and with a markedly lower efficiency to the surface of the zone of elongation and to the root cap mucilage. No adhesion to the epidermal cells between root hairs was observed. The adhesion sites were identical for the type 3and 1-fimbriated bacteria and for P. pratensis, F. rubra, and Trifolium pratense. Inoculation of P. pratensis seedlings with Klebsiella pneumoniae strain As resulted in morphological changes in plant roots. The roots of infected plants were heavily covered with root hairs, which often were deformed and branched.

Comparative genomics of Salmonella enterica serovar Montevideo reveals lineage-specific gene differences that may influence ecological niche association

“…2 and Table S3)]. Specifically, CHASRI has been reported to be widespread in bacteria isolated from fresh produce [ 86 ] while mrk fimbriae have been shown to be important for bacterial adhesion to plant roots [ 87, 88 ]. However, the presence of the myo -inositol metabolic island provides the most compelling evidence for a genetic mechanism underlying clade IV isolates being plant-associated, given that seeds and nuts (common vehicles for Montevideo outbreaks) contain concentrated levels of myo -inositol, which is noted for its role in energy and phosphorus storage in seeds and plants [ 90 ].…”

In vitro colonization and increase in nitrogen fixation of seedling roots of black mangrove inoculated by a filamentous cyanobacteria

“…The inoculation of crop and forest plants with associative beneficial bacteria has generated well-documented techniques that have recently reached their experimental peak en route to commercialization (Okon and Labandera-Gonzalez 1994;Tang 1994;Paau et al 1991). The most commonly used organisms belong to the biocontrol group of pseudomonads (Kloepper et al 1989), Azospirillum (Bashan and Levanony 1990), Klebsiella (Haahtela et al 1986), Azotobacter (Pandey et al 1989), and Bacillus (Berge et al 1990;Holl and Chanway 1992). The study of cyanobacterial inoculation of plants has been concentrated on rice (Ghosh and Saha 1993;Melting et al 1988;Roger et al 1987;Singh and Singh 1989;Yanni 1992) and recent reports on the inoculation of wheat plants (Gantar et al 1991a(Gantar et al , 1991b(Gantar et al , 1993.…”

In Silico Analysis of Usher Encoding Genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae and Characterization of Their Role in Adhesion and Colonization

“…Type 3 fimbriae have also been shown to mediate attachment to endothelial and bladder epithelial cell lines and to play a role in biofilm formation on abiotic surfaces and surfaces coated with host-derived materials [ 2 , 46 – 51 ]. Previous studies have also reported that type 3 fimbriae are efficient in promoting enterobacterial adherence to the roots of various grasses and cereals [ 36 ]. In our study, deletion of the usher-encoding ORF of this locus impaired all tested phenotypes, including murine intestinal colonization contrary to the results obtained after deletion of the whole mrk operon by Struve et al .…”

“…pneumoniae plant adhesion, as in the grass model of Haahtela et al . [ 36 ]. In addition, and in contrast with previous reports [ 54 , 57 ], murine intestinal co-colonization assay performed with LM21Δ fimC mutant showed that the mutant had a lower colonization capacity than the wild type.…”

“…Bacterial adhesion was tested as described in Haahtela et al . [ 36 ]. Briefly, 2.5 x 10 6 bacteria were incubated with whole plants in 5 ml of PBS at room temperature in a controlled environment incubator shaker set at 30 rpm for 4 hours.…”