A transmissible plant shoot factor promotes uptake hydrogenase activity in Rhizobium symbionts.

Shoot/root grafting studies showed organ and host cultivar effects on net H(2) evolution from Pisum sativum L. root nodules. Net H(2) evolution from those nodules represents the sum of H(2) formed by Rhizobium nitrogenase and H(2) oxidized by any uptake hydrogenase present in the bacteria. Grafts between pea cultivars ;JI1205' or ;Alaska' and ;Feltham First' in symbioses with R. leguminosarum 128C53 showed that shoots of both JI1205 and Alaska increased H(2) uptake significantly (P </= 0.05) in Feltham First root nodules. The same plants also had less net H(2) evolution at similar rates of C(2)H(2) reduction than plants formed by grafting Feltham First shoots on Feltham First roots. Although JI1205 and Alaska shoots increased H(2)-uptake activity of Feltham First root nodules 28 days after the graft was made, intermediate to high levels of H(2) uptake activity were still present in nodules on roots of both JI1205 and Alaska grafted to Feltham First shoots. These results indicate the presence of a transmissible shoot factor(s) which can increase uptake hydrogenase activity in a Rhizobium symbiont and show that root genotype also can influence that parameter.Parallel grafting experiments using the same pea cultivars in symbioses with R. leguminosarum strain 300, which lacks uptake hydrogenase activity, suggested that a transmissible shoot factor(s) altered H(2) formation from nitrogenase by changing the electron allocation coefficient of that enzyme complex.The root and shoot factor(s) detected in this study had no permanent effect on strain 128C53. Bacterial cells isolated from Feltham First nodules with low H(2) uptake activity formed root nodules on JI1205 and Alaska with high H(2) uptake activity. Bacteroids isolated from nodules on intact JI1205, Alaska, or Feltham First plants with high, medium, or low H(2) uptake activity, respectively, maintained those phenotypes during in vitro assays.