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A plant receptor-like kinase required for both bacterial and fungal symbiosis

Nature volume 417, pages 959–962 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Most higher plant species can enter a root symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, in which plant carbon is traded for fungal phosphate1,2. This is an ancient symbiosis, which has been detected in fossils of early land plants3. In contrast, the nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbioses of plants with bacteria evolved more recently, and are phylogenetically restricted to the rosid I clade of plants4. Both symbioses rely on partially overlapping genetic programmes5,6. We have identified the molecular basis for this convergence by cloning orthologous SYMRK (‘symbiosis receptor-like kinase’) genes from Lotus and pea, which are required for both fungal and bacterial recognition. SYMRK is predicted to have a signal peptide, an extracellular domain comprising leucine-rich repeats, a transmembrane and an intracellular protein kinase domain. Lotus SYMRK is required for a symbiotic signal transduction pathway leading from the perception of microbial signal molecules to rapid symbiosis-related gene activation. The perception of symbiotic fungi and bacteria is mediated by at least one common signalling component, which could have been recruited during the evolution of root nodule symbioses from the already existing arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis.

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Figure 1: Root hair responses of wild-type and a Lotus SYMRK mutant to bacterial inoculation.
Figure 2: NF-induced gene activation is Lotus SYMRK-dependent.
Figure 3: Positional cloning of Lotus SYMRK.
Figure 4: Features of the Lotus SYMRK amino-acid sequence.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Downie and D. Bradley for comments on the manuscript, A. Serna-Sanz for supplying nod-factor preparations, C. Pacios Bras and H. Spaink for making available M. loti R7A carrying lacZ, C. Ronson for providing the M. loti NodC mutant, A. Edwards and C. Martin for help with Pisum libraries, and V. Viprey for the gift of Pisum and Medicago cDNA. We thank M.-A. Torres for structure prediction. C.K. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). Research at the Sainsbury Laboratory is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, NR4 7UH, Norwich, UK

    Silke Stracke, Catherine Kistner, Satoko Yoshida, Lonneke Mulder & Martin Parniske

  2. Kazusa DNA Research Institute, 1532-3 Yana, Kisarazu, 292-0812, Chiba, Japan

    Shusei Sato, Takakazu Kaneko & Satoshi Tabata

  3. Laboratory of Gene Expression, IMSB, University of Aarhus, Gustav Wieds Vej 10, DK-8000 C, Aarhus, Denmark

    Niels Sandal & Jens Stougaard

  4. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, 1391 Sandford Street, London, Ontario, N5V 4T3, Canada

    Krzysztof Szczyglowski

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  1. Silke Stracke
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Correspondence to Martin Parniske.

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Stracke, S., Kistner, C., Yoshida, S. et al. A plant receptor-like kinase required for both bacterial and fungal symbiosis. Nature 417, 959–962 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00841

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