Two members of a Nodule‐specific Cysteine‐Rich (NCR) peptide gene cluster are required for differentiation of rhizobia in Medicago truncatula nodules

• DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16871
• Publication Date: 2024-06-25T17:10:24Z
• Authors: Farheen Saifi; János Barnabás Biró; Beatrix Horváth; Csaba Vizler; Krisztián Laczi; Gábor Rákhely; Szilárd Kovács; Mingming Kang; Dengyao Li; Yuhui Chen; Rujin Chen; Ágota Domonkos; Péter Kaló
• Keywords: Medicago truncatula; Medicago; Sinorhizobium meliloti

Legumes have evolved a nitrogen-fixing symbiotic interaction with rhizobia, and this association helps them to cope the limited nitrogen conditions in soil. The compatible between host plant rhizobia leads formation of root nodules, wherein internalization transition into their form, termed bacteroids, occur. Rhizobia nodules Inverted Repeat-Lacking Clade legumes, including Medicago truncatula, undergo terminal differentiation, resulting elongated endoreduplicated bacteroids. This endocytosed is mediated by large gene family host-produced nodule-specific cysteine-rich (NCR) peptides M. truncatula. Few NCRs been recently found be essential for complete differentiation persistence Here, we show that truncatula mutant FN9285, defective deficient cluster NCR genes. More specifically, loss duplicated genes NCR086 NCR314 A17 genotype, single copy littoralis R108, responsible ineffective phenotype FN9285. pair encodes same mature peptide but transcriptional activity varies considerably. Nevertheless, both can restore effective symbiosis FN9285 indicating complementation ability does not depend on strength expression activity. identification NCR086/NCR314 peptide, bacteroid has extended list peptides, from several hundred members, are