Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Sci. STKE, 2 March 2004
Vol. 2004, Issue 222, p. tw83
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.2222004TW83]

EDITORS' CHOICE

NODULE FORMATION How Nitrogen Fixation Depends on Calcium

Leguminous plants form symbiotic relationships with rhizobial nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi, which set up residence in nodules in the roots of host plants. Nodulation results from a signal transduction pathway induced in the roots of legumes by rhizobial signals called Nod factors. Two reports by Ané et al. and Lévy et al. define genes from the leguminous plant Medicago truncatula involved in the earliest steps of nodulation. One of the genes likely encodes a calcium- and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, and the other a ligand-gated cation channel. Thus, calcium signaling appears to be critical for the establishment of a successful plant-microbe symbiosis.

J.-M. Ané, G. B. Kiss, B. K. Riely, R. V. Penmetsa, G. E. D. Oldroyd, C. Ayax, J. Lévy, F. Debellé, J.-M. Baek, P. Kalo, C. Rosenberg, B. A. Roe, S. R. Long, J. Dénarié, D. R. Cook, Medicago truncatula DMI1 required for bacterial and fungal symbioses in legumes. Science 303, 1364-1367 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]

J. Lévy, C. Bres, R. Geurts, B. Chalhoub, O. Kulikova, G. Duc, E.-P. Journet, J.-M. Ané, E. Lauber, T. Bisseling, J. Dénarié, C. Rosenberg, F. Debellé, A putative Ca2+ and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase required for bacterial and fungal symbioses. Science 303, 1361-1364 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]

Citation: How Nitrogen Fixation Depends on Calcium. Sci. STKE 2004, tw83 (2004).

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882