Ac. Minder et al., Phosphatidylcholine levels in Bradyrhizobium japonicum membranes are critical for an efficient symbiosis with the soybean host plant, MOL MICROB, 39(5), 2001, pp. 1186-1198
Phosphatidycholine (PC), the major membrane phospholipid in eukaryotes, is
found in only some bacteria including members of the family Rhizobiaceae. F
or this reason, it has long been speculated that rhizobial PC might be requ
ired for a successful interaction of rhizobia with their legume host plants
in order to allow the formation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules. A major p
athway for PC formation in prokaryotes involves a threefold methylation of
the precursor phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Here, we report on the isolati
on of a Bradyrhizobium japonicum gene (pmtA) encoding the phospholipid N-me
thyltransferase PmtA. Upon expression of the bradyrhizobial pmtA gene in Es
cherichia coli, predominantly monomethylphosphatidylethanolamine was formed
from PE. PmtA-deficient B. japonicum mutants still produced low levels of
PC by a second methylation pathway. The amount of PC formed in such mutants
(6% of total phospholipids) was greatly decreased compared with the wild t
ype (52% of total phospholipids). Root nodules of soybean plants infected w
ith B. japonicum pmtA mutants showed a nitrogen fixation activity of only 1
8% of the wild-type level. The interior colour of the nodules was beige ins
tead of red, suggesting decreased amounts of leghaemoglobin. Moreover, ultr
astructure analysis of these nodules demonstrated a greatly reduced number
of bacteroids within infected plant cells. These data suggest that the bios
ynthesis of wild-type amounts of PC are required to allow for an efficient
symbiotic interaction of B. japonicum with its soybean host plant.