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A receptor kinase gene of the LysM type is involved in legumeperception of rhizobial signals

Nature volume 425, pages 637–640 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Plants belonging to the legume family develop nitrogen-fixing root nodules in symbiosis with bacteria commonly known as rhizobia. The legume host encodes all of the functions necessary to build the specialized symbiotic organ, the nodule, but the process is elicited by the bacteria1,2,3. Molecular communication initiates the interaction, and signals, usually flavones, secreted by the legume root induce the bacteria to produce a lipochitin-oligosaccharide signal molecule (Nod-factor), which in turn triggers the plant organogenic process4,5,6,7. An important determinant of bacterial host specificity is the structure of the Nod-factor, suggesting that a plant receptor is involved in signal perception and signal transduction initiating the plant developmental response8,9. Here we describe the cloning of a putative Nod-factor receptor kinase gene (NFR5) from Lotus japonicus. NFR5 is essential for Nod-factor perception and encodes an unusual transmembrane serine/threonine receptor-like kinase required for the earliest detectable plant responses to bacteria and Nod-factor. The extracellular domain of the putative receptor has three modules with similarity to LysM domains known from peptidoglycan-binding proteins and chitinases. Together with an atypical kinase domain structure this characterizes an unusual receptor-like kinase.

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Figure 1: Map-based cloning of NFR5.
Figure 2: Structure and domains of the NFR5 protein.
Figure 3: Expression of Lotus NFR5 and pea SYM10.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Ambrose, A. Downie and K. Engvild for providing seeds from plants with sym10 alleles. S.R. was supported by an EU Marie Curie Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Gene Expression, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Aarhus, Gustav Wieds Vej 10, 8000 C, Aarhus, Denmark

    Esben Bjørn Madsen, Lene Heegaard Madsen, Simona Radutoiu, Magdalena Olbryt, Magdalena Rakwalska, Niels Sandal & Jens Stougaard

  2. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, SCPFRC, 1391 Sandford Street, London, Ontario, NV5 4T3, Canada

    Krzysztof Szczyglowski

  3. Kazusa DNA Research Institute, 292-0812, Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan

    Shusei Sato, Takakazu Kaneko & Satoshi Tabata

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  1. Esben Bjørn Madsen
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Correspondence to Jens Stougaard.

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Supplementary information

41586_2003_BFnature02045_MOESM1_ESM.doc

Supplementary Information: Alignment of NFR5 and the orthologous SYM10 protein with the most similar proteins from Medicago truncatula (Acc Ac126779) and rice (Acc Ac103891). Black boxes indicate amino acid conserved in all four proteins and grey boxes amino acids conserved in three of the proteins. (DOC 32 kb)

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Madsen, E., Madsen, L., Radutoiu, S. et al. A receptor kinase gene of the LysM type is involved in legumeperception of rhizobial signals. Nature 425, 637–640 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02045

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