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Journal of Bacteriology, June 1999, p. 3816-3823, Vol. 181, No. 12
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Analysis of Quorum-Sensing-Dependent Control of
Rhizosphere-Expressed (rhi) Genes in Rhizobium
leguminosarum bv. viciae
Belen
Rodelas,1,
James K.
Lithgow,1
Florence
Wisniewski-Dye,1
Andrea
Hardman,2
Adam
Wilkinson,1,
Anastassios
Economou,1,§
Paul
Williams,2 and
J.
Allan
Downie1,*
John Innes Centre, Colney, Norwich NR4
7UH,1 and School of Pharmaceutical
Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7
2RD,2 United Kingdom
Received 26 January 1999/Accepted 16 April 1999
The rhi genes of Rhizobium leguminosarum
biovar viciae are expressed in the rhizosphere and play a role in the
interaction with legumes, such as the pea. Previously (K. M. Gray,
J. P. Pearson, J. A. Downie, B. E. A. Boboye, and
E. P. Greenberg, J. Bacteriol. 178:372-376, 1996) the
rhiABC operon had been shown to be regulated by RhiR and to
be induced by added
N-(3-hydroxy-7-cis-tetradecenoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (3OH,C14:1-HSL). Mutagenesis of a cosmid carrying
the rhiABC and rhiR gene region identified a
gene (rhiI) that affects the level of rhiA
expression. Mutation of rhiI slightly increased the number
of nodules formed on the pea. The rhiI gene is (like rhiA) regulated by rhiR in a cell
density-dependent manner. RhiI is similar to LuxI and other proteins
involved in the synthesis of N-acyl-homoserine lactones
(AHLs). Chemical analyses of spent culture supernatants demonstrated
that RhiI produces N-(hexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (C6-HSL) and
N-(octanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone
(C8-HSL). Both of these AHLs induced rhiA-lacZ
and rhiI-lacZ expression on plasmids introduced into an
Agrobacterium strain that produces no AHLs, showing that
rhiI is positively regulated by autoinduction. However, in
this system no induction of rhiA or rhiI with
3OH,C14:1-HSL was observed. Analysis of the spent culture
supernatant of the wild-type R. leguminosarum bv. viciae
revealed that at least seven different AHLs are made. Mutation of
rhiI decreased the amounts of C6-HSL and
C8-HSL but did not block their formation, and in this
background the rhiI mutation did not significantly affect the expression levels of the rhiI gene or
rhiABC genes or the accumulation of RhiA protein. These
observations suggest that there are additional loci involved in AHL
production in R. leguminosarum bv. viciae and that they
affect rhiI and rhiABC expression. We postulate
that the previously observed induction of rhiA by
3OH,C14:1-HSL may be due to an indirect effect caused by
induction of other AHL production loci.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: John Innes
Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom. Phone: 1603 452571. Fax: 1603 456844. E-mail: downie{at}bbsrc.ac.uk.
Present address: Departmento de Microbiologia, Facultad de
Farmacia, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain.

Present address: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
CBQ 2H, United
Kingdom.
§
Present address: IMBB-Forth and Department of Biology, University
of Crete, P.O. Box 1527, 711 10 Iraklio-Crete,
Greece.
Journal of Bacteriology, June 1999, p. 3816-3823, Vol. 181, No. 12
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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