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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2007, p. 7733-7740, Vol. 189, No. 21
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00739-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Strain-Ecotype Specificity in Sinorhizobium meliloti-Medicago truncatula Symbiosis Is Correlated to Succinoglycan Oligosaccharide Structure{triangledown}

Senay Simsek,1 Tuula Ojanen-Reuhs,1 Samuel B. Stephens,2 and Bradley L. Reuhs1*

Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Purdue University, 745 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2009,1 Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 277102

Received 10 May 2007/ Accepted 22 August 2007

Molecular signals, including Nod factors and succinoglycan, are necessary for the establishment of nitrogen-fixing nodules (Fix+) in Medicago truncatula-Sinorhizobium meliloti symbiosis. This report shows that M. truncatula-S. meliloti interactions involve ecotype-strain specificity, as S. meliloti Rm41 and NRG247 are Fix+ (compatible) on M. truncatula A20 and Fix– (incompatible) on M. truncatula A17, the Fix phenotypes are reversed with S. meliloti NRG185 and NRG34, and there is a correlation between the host specificity and succinoglycan oligosaccharide structure. S. meliloti NRG185 produces oligosaccharides that are almost fully succinylated, with two succinate groups per subunit, whereas the oligosaccharides produced by S. meliloti Rm41 include many nonsuccinylated subunits, as well as subunits with a single succinate group and others with malate. The results of this study demonstrated the following: (i) incompatibility is not a consequence of an avirulence factor or lack of Nod factor activity; (ii) the Fix+ phenotypes are succinoglycan dependent; (iii) there is structural variability in the succinoglycan oligosaccharide populations between S. meliloti strains; (iv) the structural nature of the succinoglycan oligosaccharides is correlated to compatibility; most importantly, (v) an S. meliloti Rm41 derivative, carrying exo genes from an M. truncatula A17-compatible strain, produced a modified population of succinoglycan oligosaccharides (similar to the donor strain) and was Fix+ on A17.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Purdue University, 745 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2009. Phone: (765) 496-2497. Fax: (765) 494-7953. E-mail: breuhs{at}purdue.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 31 August 2007.

Journal of Bacteriology, November 2007, p. 7733-7740, Vol. 189, No. 21
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00739-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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