Identification and expression regulation of symbiotically activated legume genes

Legume root endosymbioses activate a common set of genes during microbial infection and the establishment of symbiotic structures. These genes can be traced by in silico and experimental transcriptome profiling. Symbiotic gene expression is regulated by promoter elements specific to the infected cells of root nodules or arbuscular mycorrhizal roots. Legume plants are able to enter two different endosymbioses with soil prokaryotes and soil fungi, leading to nitrogen-fixing root nodules and to arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), respectively. We applied in silicoand microarray-based transcriptome profiling approaches to uncover the transcriptome of developing root nodules and AM roots of the model legume Medicago truncatula. Several hundred genes were found to be activated in different stages of either symbiosis, with almost 100 genes being co-induced during nodulation and in arbuscular mycorrhiza. These co-induced genes can be associated with different cellular functions required for symbiotic efficiency, such as the facilitation of transport processes across the perisymbiotic membranes that surround the endosymbiotic bacteroids in root nodules and the arbuscules in AM roots. To specify promoter elements required for gene expression in arbuscule-containing cells, reporter gene fusions of the promoter of the Vicia faba leghemoglobin gene VfLb29 were studied by loss-of-function and gain-of-function approaches in transgenic hairy roots. These analyses specified a 85-bp fragment that was necessary for gene expression in arbuscule-containing cells but was dispensible for gene activation in root nodules. In contrast to promoters mediating gene expression in the infected cells of root nodules, the activation of genes in AM appears to be governed by more complex regulatory systems requiring different promoter modules.