Plant Cell Wall Remodelling in the Rhizobium–Legume Symbiosis

Abstract

Colonization of host cells by rhizobium bacteria involves the progressive remodelling of the plant–microbial interface. Following induction of nodulation genes by legume-derived flavonoid signals, rhizobium secretes Nod-factors (lipochitin oligosaccharides) that cause root hair deformations by perturbing the growth of the plant cell wall. The infection thread arises as a tubular ingrowth bounded by plant cell wall. This serves as a conduit for colonizing bacterial cells that grow and divide in its lumen. The transcellular orientation of thread growth is controlled by the cytoskeleton and is coupled to cell cycle reactivation and cell division processes. In response to rhizobium infection, host cells synthesize several new components (early nodulins) that modify the properties of the cell wall and extracellular matrix. Root nodule extensins are a legume-specific family of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins targeted into the lumen of the infection thread. They have alternating extensin and arabinogalactan (AGP) glycosylation motifs. The structural characteristics of these glycoproteins suggest that they may serve to regulate fluid-to-solid transitions in the extracellular matrix. Extensibility of the infection thread is apparently controlled by peroxide-driven protein cross-linking and perhaps also by modification of the pectic matrix. Endocytosis of rhizobia from unwalled infection droplets into the host cell cytoplasm depends on physical contact between glycocalyx components of the plant and bacterial membrane surfaces. As endosymbionts, bacteroids remain enclosed within a plant-derived membrane that is topologically equivalent to the plasma membrane. This membrane acquires specialist functions that regulate metabolite exchanges between bacterial cells and the host cytoplasm. Ultimately, however, the fate of the symbiosome is to become a lysosome, causing the eventual senescence of the symbiotic interaction.

Keywords:

• cellulose synthesis
• extensin
• infection threads
• nitrogen fixation
• root nodules
• proline rich glycoproteins

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Allan Downie and Keith Chater for their critical reading of the manuscript. The John Innes Centre is supported by a grant-in-aid from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council.