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Construction of highly-effective symbiotic bacteria: Evolutionary models and genetic approaches

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Abstract

Using the example of N2-fixing legume-rhizobial symbiosis, we demonstrated that the origin and evolution of bacteria symbiotic for plants involve: (i) the formation of novel sym gene systems based on reorganizations of the bacterial genomes and on the gene transfer from the distant organisms; (ii) the loss of genes encoding for functions that are required for autonomous performance but interfere with symbiotic functions (negative regulators of symbiosis). Therefore, the construction of effective rhizobia strains should involve improvement of sym genes activities (for instance, nif, fix, and dct genes encoding for nitrogenase synthesis or for the energy supply of N2 fixation), as well as the inactivation of negative regulators of symbiosis identified in our lab (eff genes encoding for the transport of sugars and the production of polysaccharides and storage compounds, as well as for oxidative-reductive processes).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology, St. Petersburg, 196608, Russia

    N. A. Provorov, O. P. Onishchuk, O. N. Kurchak, E. P. Chizhevskaya, N. I. Vorobyov & B. V. Simarov

  2. Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-6340, USA

    S. N. Yurgel

  3. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology, Ukranian National Academy of Sciences, ul. Zabolotnaya 154, Kiev, D03680, Ukraine

    T. V. Zatovskaya

  4. International Research Centre Biotechnologies of the Third Millennium, ITMO University ul. Lomonosova 9, Saint-Petersburg, 191002, Russia

    N. A. Provorov

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  1. N. A. Provorov
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  2. O. P. Onishchuk
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  3. S. N. Yurgel
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  4. O. N. Kurchak
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  6. N. I. Vorobyov
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  8. B. V. Simarov
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Correspondence to N. A. Provorov.

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Original Russian Text © N.A. Provorov, O.P. Onishchuk, S.N. Yurgel, O.N. Kurchak, E.P. Chizhevskaya, N.I. Vorobyov, T.V. Zatovskaya, B.V. Simarov, 2014, published in Genetika, 2014, Vol. 50, No. 11, pp. 1273–1285.

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Provorov, N.A., Onishchuk, O.P., Yurgel, S.N. et al. Construction of highly-effective symbiotic bacteria: Evolutionary models and genetic approaches. Russ J Genet 50, 1125–1136 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1022795414110118

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