COLONIZATION OF WHEAT (TRITICUM-VULGARE L) BY N-2-FIXING CYANOBACTERIA .4. DARK NITROGENASE ACTIVITY AND EFFECTS OF CYANOBACTERIA ON NATURAL N-15 ABUNDANCE IN THE PLANTS
M. Gantar et al., COLONIZATION OF WHEAT (TRITICUM-VULGARE L) BY N-2-FIXING CYANOBACTERIA .4. DARK NITROGENASE ACTIVITY AND EFFECTS OF CYANOBACTERIA ON NATURAL N-15 ABUNDANCE IN THE PLANTS, New phytologist, 129(2), 1995, pp. 337-343
Two cyanobacterial soil isolates, Nostoc 2S9B and Anabaena C5, that ha
d previously been shown to form different types of association with th
e roots of wheat plants grown in liquid culture, were tested for heter
otrophic nitrogenase activity and the ability to colonize the roots of
plants grown in sand. Nostoc 2S9B showed substantial nitrogenase acti
vity when associated with the roots of plants grown in liquid culture
in medium free of combined N, even with the roots maintained and with
assays performed in the dark (29% of the rate shown by root-associated
Nostoc 2S9B grown and assayed in the light). When grown heterotrophic
ally in the dark, at the expense of fructose, free-living Nostoc 2S9B
showed a similar nitrogenase activity to root-associated Nostoc 2S9B i
n the dark. In contrast, Anabaena C5 showed no nitrogenase activity in
the dark, under these conditions. When three different wheat cultivar
s were grown in sand that had previously been surface-inoculated with
Nostoc 2S9B or with the cultured symbiotic cyanobacterium Nostoc LBG1,
isolated from the bryophyte Anthoceros, there was colonization of the
plant roots; there was no colonization of roots by Anabaena C5 under
these conditions. Some increases in plant biomass and nitrogen content
were observed, but these were dependent on the wheat cultivar and cya
nobacterial inoculum used. Wheat plants grown in sand that had been pr
e-inoculated with Nostoc 2S9B, Nostoc LBG1 or Anabaena C5 in medium fr
ee of combined N had lower delta(15)N values in both roots and shoots
than plants grown under identical conditions without a cyanobacterial
inoculum. The observed N-15/N-14 fractionation indicates that N, fixed
by the cyanobacteria contributed to the nitrogen economy of the wheat
plants, irrespective of whether they were closely associated with the
plant roots.