Choline kinase II is present only in nodules that synthesize stable peribacteroid membranes.

Host-cell cytoplasm from soybean plants infected with the peribacteroid membrane (PBM)-building Rhizobium japonicum strain 61-A-101 (effective, N(2)-fixing) had much higher choline kinase activity than cytoplasm from either uninfected tissue or tissue infected with the non-PBM-building (ineffective, non-N(2)-fixing) strain 61-A-24. Ion-exchange chromatography showed that both types of nodule and root tissue possessed constitutive choline kinase I activity that had a K(m) for choline of approximately 150 muM. The nodules of the effective symbiosis had another activity, choline kinase II (K(m) = 81 muM). Nondenaturing and NaDodSO(4) electrophoresis revealed no multimeric subunit structure of the two enzyme forms but did show the molecular sizes for choline kinase I, 58-59 kDa, and choline kinase II, 60 kDa. Choline kinase I and II and pI values of 8.1 and 8.5, respectively, and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of whole cytoplasm from control and infected tissue showed a spot corresponding to choline kinase II only in the case of the effective symbiosis, whereas both tissue types had spots corresponding to choline kinase I. Choline kinase II is presumed to be encoded by the plant as neither free-living nor symbiotic (bacteroid) forms of the prokaryote showed any choline kinase activity.