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Strigolactones promote nodulation in pea

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Abstract

Strigolactones are recently defined plant hormones with roles in mycorrhizal symbiosis and shoot and root architecture. Their potential role in controlling nodulation, the related symbiosis between legumes and Rhizobium bacteria, was explored using the strigolactone-deficient rms1 mutant in pea (Pisum sativum L.). This work indicates that endogenous strigolactones are positive regulators of nodulation in pea, required for optimal nodule number but not for nodule formation per se. rms1 mutant root exudates and root tissue are almost completely deficient in strigolactones, and rms1 mutant plants have approximately 40% fewer nodules than wild-type plants. Treatment with the synthetic strigolactone GR24 elevated nodule number in wild-type pea plants and also elevated nodule number in rms1 mutant plants to a level similar to that seen in untreated wild-type plants. Grafting studies revealed that nodule number and strigolactone levels in root tissue of rms1 roots were unaffected by grafting to wild-type scions indicating that strigolactones in the root, but not shoot-derived factors, regulate nodule number and provide the first direct evidence that the shoot does not make a major contribution to root strigolactone levels.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Post-doctoral Research Fellowship (DP0772348) and the ARC Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment Funding scheme (LE10010015), which supported the purchase of the UPLC-MS. We would like to thank Anthony Cummings and Ian Cummings for assistance with plant husbandry. We would like to thank A/Prof John Ross and Prof Jim Reid for helpful discussions. Our thanks are due to Dr Christine Beveridge for rms1-2T seed and Dr Brett Ferguson for supply of Rhizobia (University of QLD), and Prof Binne Zwanenburg (Radboud Universty Nijmegen) for supply of GR24. Also, many thanks are due to Prof Koichi Yoneyama (Utsunomiya University) and Dr Kohki Akiyama (Osaka Prefecture University) for their kind gifts of measured quantities of labeled strigolactones.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Eloise Foo

  2. Central Science Laboratory, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Noel W. Davies

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  1. Eloise Foo
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  2. Noel W. Davies
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Correspondence to Eloise Foo.

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Supplementary Fig. 1 Representative UPLC-MS chromatogram of strigolactones from wild-type root exudate, including endogenous strigolactones and deuterium-labeled internal standards.

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Foo, E., Davies, N.W. Strigolactones promote nodulation in pea. Planta 234, 1073–1081 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1516-7

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