Symbiotic nitrogen fixation

1. Legume symbioses

The most familiar examples of nitrogen-fixing symbioses are the root nodules of legumes (peas, beans, clover, etc.).

Part of a clover root system bearing naturally occurring nodules of Rhizobium. Each nodule is about 2-3 mm long.

Clover root nodules at higher magnification, showing two partly crushed nodules (arrowheads) with pink-coloured contents. This colour is caused by the presence of the pigment leghaemoglobin- a unique metabolite of this type of symbiosis. Leghaemoglobin is found only in the nodules and is not produced by either the bacterium or the plant when grown alone.

In these leguminous associations the bacteria usually are Rhizobium species, but the root nodules of soybeans, chickpea and some other legumes are formed by small-celled rhizobia termed Bradyrhizobium. Nodules on some tropical leguminous plants are formed by yet other genera. In all cases the bacteria "invade" the plant and cause the formation of a nodule by inducing localised proliferation of the plant host cells. Yet the bacteria always remain separated from the host cytoplasm by being enclosed in a membrane - a necessary feature in symbioses (see the image below).

Part of a crushed root nodule of a pea plant, showing four root cells containing colonies of Rhizobium. The nuclei (n) of two root cells are shown; cw indicates the cell wall that separates two plant cells. Although it cannot be seen clearly in this image, the bacteria occur in clusters which are enclosed in membranes, separating them from the cytoplasm of the plant cells.

In nodules where nitrogen-fixation is occurring, the plant tissues contain the oxygen-scavenging molecule,leghaemoglobin (serving the same function as the oxygen-carrying haemoglobin in blood). The function of this molecule in nodules is to reduce the amount of free oxygen, and thereby to protect the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase, which is irreversibly inactivated by oxygen.

2. Associations with Frankia

Frankia is a genus of the bacterial group termed actinomycetes - filamentous bacteria that are noted for their production of air-borne spores. Included in this group are the common soil-dwelling Streptomyces species which produce many of the antibiotics used in medicine (see Streptomyces). Frankia species are slow-growing in culture, and require specialised media, suggesting that they are specialisedsymbionts. They form nitrogen-fixing root nodules (sometimes called actinorhizae) with several woody plants of different families, such as alder (Alnusspecies), sea buckthorn (Hippophaerhamnoides, which is common in sand-dune environments) and Casuarina(a Mediterranean tree genus). Figure A (below) shows a young alder tree (Alnusglutinosa) growing in a plant pot, and Figure B shows part of the root system of this tree, bearing the orange-yellow coloured nodules (arrowheads) containing Frankia.

Alder and the other woody hosts of Frankia are typical pioneer species that invade nutrient-poor soils. These plants probably benefit from the nitrogen-fixing association, while supplying the bacterial symbiont with photosynthetic products.

3. Cyanobacterial associations

The photosynthetic cyanobacteria often live as free-living organisms in pioneer habitats such as desert soils (see cyanobacteria) or as symbionts with lichens in other pioneer habitats. They also form symbiotic associations with other organisms such as the water fern Azolla, and cycads.The association with Azolla, where cyanobacteria (Anabaena azollae) are harboured in the leaves, has sometimes been shown to be important for nitrogen inputs in rice paddies, especially if the fern is allowed to grow and then ploughed into the soil to release nitrogen before the rice crop is sown. A symbiotic association of cyanobacteria with cycads is shown below. The first image shows a pot-grown plant. The second image shows a close-up of the soil surface in this pot. Short, club-shaped, branching roots have grown into the aerial environment. These aerial roots contain a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterialsymbiont.

In addition to these intimate and specialised symbiotic associations, there are several free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria that grow in close association with plants. For example, Azospirillum species have been shown to fix nitrogen when growing in the root zone (rhizosphere) or tropical grasses, and even of maize plants in field conditions. Similarly, Azotobacter species can fix nitrogen in the rhizosphere of several plants. In both cases the bacteria grow at the expense of sugars and other nutrients that leak from the roots. However, these bacteria can make only a small contribution to the nitrogen nutrition of the plant, because nitrogen-fixation is an energy-expensive process, and large amounts of organic nutrients are not continuously available to microbes in the rhizosphere.

This limitation may not apply to the bacteria that live in root nodules or other intimate symbiotic associations with plants. It has been estimated that nitrogen fixation in the nodules of clover roots or other leguminous plants may consume as much as 20% of the total photosynthate.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 2353