Abstract
A Rhizobium trifolii symbiotic plasmid specific gene library was constructed and the physical organisation of regions homologous to nifHDK, nifA and nod genes was determined. These symbiotic gene regions were localised to u 25 kb region on the sym-plasmid, pPN1. In addition four copies of a reiterated sequence were identified on this plasmid, with one copy adjacent to nifH. No rearrangement of these reiterated sequences was observed between R. trifolii bacterial and bacteroid DNA. Analysis of a deletion derivative of pPN1 showed that these sequences were spread over a 110 kb region to the left of nifA.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banfalvi Z, Sakanyan V, Koncz C, Kiss A, Dusha I, Kondorosi A (1981) Location of nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes on a high molecular weight plasmid of R. meliloti. Mol Gen Genet 184:318–325
Banfalvi Z, Randhawa GS, Kondorosi E, Kiss A, Kondorosi A (1983) Construction and characterisation of R-prime plasmids carrying symbiotic genes of R. meliloti. Mol Gen Genet 189:129–135
Better M, Lewis B, Corbin D, Ditta G, Helsinki DR (1983) Structural relationship among Rhizobium meliloti symbiotic promoters. Cell 35:479–485
Bolivar F, Rodriguez R, Greene, PJ, Betlach M, Heyneker HL, Boyer HW, Crosa J, Falkow S (1977) Construction and characterisation of new cloning vehicles. II. A multipurpose cloning system. Gene 2:95–113
Buchanan-Wollaston AV, Beringer JE, Brewin NJ, Hirsch PR, Johnston AWB (1980) Isolation of symbiotically defective mutants in Rhizobium leguminosarum by insertion of the transposon Tn5 into a transmissible plasmid. Mol Gen Genet 178:185–190
Buchanan-Wollaston V, Cannon MC, Beynon JL, Cannon FC (1981) Role of the nifA gene product in the regulation of nif expression in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature 294:776–778
Cannon FC, Riedel GE, Ausubel FM (1979) Overlapping sequences of Klebsiella pneumoniae nif DNA cloned and characterised. Mol Gen Genet 174:59–66
Clewell DB, Helinski DR (1969) Supercoiled DNA-protein complex in Escherichia coli: purification and induced conversion to an open circular form. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 62:1159–1166
Cohen SN, Chang ACY, Hsu L (1972) Nonchromosomal antibiotic resistance in bacteria: genetic transformation of Escherichia coli by R-factor DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 69:2110–2114
Dénarié J, Boistard P, Casse-Delbart F, Atherly AG, Berry JO, Russell P (1981) Indigenous plasmids of Rhizobium. In: Giles KL, Atherly AG (eds) Int Rev Cytol Suppl 13. Academic Press, London New York, pp 225–246
Dixon R, Eady RR, Espin G, Hill S, Iaccarino M, Kahn D, Merrick M (1980) Analysis of regulation of Klebsiella pneumoniae nitrogen fixation (nif) gene cluster with gene fusions. Nature 286:128–132
Downie JA, Ma Q-S, Knight CD Hombrecher G, Johnston AWB (1983) Cloning of the symbiotic region of Rhizobium leguminosarum: the nodulation genes are between the nitrogenase genes and a nifA-like gene. Embo J 2:947–952
Drummond M, Clements J, Merrick M, Dixon R (1983) Positive control and autogenous regulation of the nifLA promoter in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature 301:302–307
Fischer SG, Lerman LS (1979) Length-independent separation of DNA restriction fragments in two dimension gel electrophoresis. Cell 16:191–200
Grunstein M, Hogness DS (1975) Colony hybridisation: a method for the isolation of cloned DNAs that contain a specific gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 72:3961–3965
Hirsch PR, Van Montagu M, Johnston AWB, Brewin NJ, Schell J (1980) Physical identification of bacteriocinogenic, nodulation and other plasmids in strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum. J. Gen Microbiol 120:403–412
Holmes DS, Quigley M (1981). A rapid boiling method for the preparation of bacterial plasmids. Anal Biochem. 114:193–197
Hombrecher G, Brewin NJ, Johnston AWB (1981) Linkage of genes for nitrogenase and nodulation ability on plasmids in Ehizobium leguminosarum and Rhizobium phaseoli. Mol Gen Genet 182:133–136
Hooykaas PJJ, van Brussel AAN, den Dulk-Ras H, van Slogteren GMS, Schilperoort RA (1981) Sym plasmid of Rhizobium trifolii expressed in different rhizobial species and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Nature 291:351–353
Johnston AWB, Beynon JL, Buchanan-Wollaston AV, Setchell SM, Hirsch PR, Beringer JE (1978) High frequency transfer of nodulating ability between strains and species of Rhizobium. Nature 276:634–636
Kado CI, Liu S-T (1981) Rapid procedure for detection and isolation of large and small plasmids. J Bacteriol 145:1365–1373
Kennedy C, Robson RL (1983) Activation of nif gene expression in Azotobacter by the nifA gene product of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature 301:626–628
Kondorosi A, Kondorosi E, Pankhurst, CE, Broughton WJ, Banfalvi Z (1982) Mobilisation of a Rhizobium meliloti megaplasmid carrying nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes into other rhizobia and Agrobacterium. Mol Gen Genet 188:433–439
Long SR, Buikema WJ, Ausubel FM (1982) Cloning of Rhizobium meliloti nodulation genes by direct complementation of Nod- mutants. Nature 298:485–488
Meyers JA, Sanchez D, Elwell LP, Falkow S (1976) Simple agarose gel electrophoretic method for the identification and characterisation of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid. J Bacteriol 127:1529–1537
Nuti MP, Lepidi AA, Prakash RK, Schilperoort RA, Cannon FC (1979) Evidence for nitrogen fixation (nif) genes on indigenous Rhizobium plasmids Nature 282:533–535
Ow DW Ausubel FM (1983) Regulation of nitrogen metabolism genes by nifA gene product in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nature 301:307–313
Prakash RK, Schilperoort RA, Nuti MP (1981) Large plasmids of fast-growing rhizobia: homology studies and location of strucutral nitrogen fixation (nif) genes. J Bacteriol 145:1129–1136
Quinto C, de la Vega H, Flores M, Fernandez L, Ballado T, Soberon G, Palacios R (1982) Reiteration of nitrogen fixation gene sequences in Rhizobium phaseoli Nature 299:724–726
Rice D, Mazur BJ, Haselkorn R (1982) Isolation and physical mapping of nitrogen fixation genes from the cyanobacterium Anabaena 7120. J Biol Chem 257:13157–13163
Roberts GP, Brill WJ (1980) Gene products relationships of the nif regulon of Klebsiella pneumoniae. J Bacteriol 144:210–216
Robertson JG, Farnden KJF, Warburton MP, Banks J-AM (1975) Induction of glutamine synthetase during nodule development in lupin. Aust J Plant Physiol 2:265–272
Ronson CW, Scott DB (1983) Identification, broad host range mobilisation and mutagenesis of a Rhizobium trifolii Sym.: R68.45 cointegrate plasmid. In: Pühler A (ed) Molecular genetics of the bacteria-plant interaction. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp. 177–187
Rosenberg C, Boistard P, Dénarié J, Casse-Delbart F (1981) Genes controlling early and late functions in symbiosis are located on a megaplasmid in Rhizobium meliloti. Mol Gen Genet 184:326–333
Ruvkun GB, Ausubel FM (1981) A general method for site directed mutagenesis in prokaryotes. Nature 289:85–88
Ruvkun GB, Sundaresan V, Ausubel FM (1982) Directed transposon Tn5 mutagenesis and complementation analysis of Rhizobium meliloti symbiotic nitrogen fixation genes. Cell 29:551–559
Schofield PR, Djordjevic, MA, Rolfe BG, Shine J, Watson JM (1983) A molecular linkage map of nitrogenase and nodulation genes in Rhizobium trifolii. Mol Gen Genet 192:459–465
Scott DB, Ronson CW (1982) Identification and mobilisation by cointegrate formation of a nodulation plasmid in Rhizobium trifolii. J Bacteriol 151:36–43
Scott KF, Rolfe BG, Shine J (1983) Biological nitrogen fixation: primary structure of the Rhizobium trifolii iron protein gene. DNA 2:149–155
Shine J, Seeburg PH, Martial JA, Baxter JD, Goodman HM (1977) Construction and analysis of recombinant DNA for human chorionic somatomammotropin. Nature 270:494–499
Soberon X, Covarrubias L, Bolivar F (1980) Construction and characterisation of new cloning vehicles IV. Deletion, derivatives of pBR322 and pBR325. Gene 9:287–305
Southern EM (1975) Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol 98:503–517
Sundaresan V, Jones JDG, Ow DW, Ausubel FM (1983a) Klebsiella pneumoniae nifA product activates the Rhizobium meliloti nitrogenase promoter. Nature 301:728–732
Sundaresan V, Ow DW, Ausubel FM (1983b) Activation of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Rhizobium meliloti nitrogenase promoters by gln regulatory proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80:4030–4034
Whitfeld PL, Secburg PH, Shine J (1982) The human proopiomelanocortin gene: organisation sequence, and interspersion with repetitive DNA. DNA 1:133–143
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scott, D.B., Court, C.B., Ronson, C.W. et al. Organisation of nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes on a Rhizobium trifolii symbiotic plasmid. Arch. Microbiol. 139, 151–157 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401991
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401991