Bacterial delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase activity is not essential for leghemoglobin formation in the soybean/Bradyrhizobium japonicum symbiosis.

Previous studies of legume nodules have indicated that formation of the heme moiety of leghemoglobin is a function of the bacterial symbiont. We now show that a hemA mutant of Bradyrhizobium japonicum that cannot carry out the first step in heme biosynthesis forms fully effective nodules on soybeans. The bacterial mutant strain was constructed by first isolating the wild-type hemA gene encoding delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase (EC 2.3.1.37) from a cosmid library, using a fragment of the Rhizobium meliloti hemA gene as a hybridization probe. A deletion of the hemA gene region, generated in vitro, then was used to construct the analogous chromosomal mutation by gene-directed mutagenesis. The mutant strain had no delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase activity and was unable to grow in minimal medium unless delta-aminolevulinic acid was added. Despite its auxotrophy, the mutant strain incited nodules that appeared normal, contained heme, and were capable of high levels of acetylene reduction. These results rule out bacterial delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase activity as the exclusive source of delta-aminolevulinic acid for heme formation in soybean nodules.