Proteins involved in nodulation competitiveness of two Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens strains induced by soybean root exudates

Competitiveness for nodulation is one of the major restrictive factors in symbiotic nitrogen fixation between rhizobia and their host legumes. Soybean root exudates that include a variety of compounds are thought to act as signals to trigger the early symbiotic events between Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens and soybeans, and thus they act as a key determinant of the competitiveness for nodulation. To gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of competitiveness at the level of protein expression, we compared the proteomic responses of two B. diazoefficiens strains that demonstrated completely different nodulation abilities, strain 4534 being the most competitive and strain 4222 being the least competitive in nodulation. In the proteomic analysis, 40 of the 65 and 22 of the 29 differential proteins were identified in response to soybean root exudates in strain 4534 and strain 4222, respectively. Compared to strain 4222, a higher amount and a number of differential proteins were detected in strain 4534, including S-adenosylmethionine synthetase (SAMS), PhyR-σEcfG regulon, ABC-type transporters, flagellar proteins, molecular chaperones, and proteins involved in redox state maintenance as well as several unknown proteins. Noteworthy was the induction of the PhyR-σEcfG regulon and flagellar proteins, recently demonstrated to be involved in the competitiveness for nodulation in Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Our results indicate that the role of root exudates can go far beyond inducing the expression of nodulation genes in B. diazoefficiens. Many other proteins/enzymes involved in the metabolism and environmental fitness were also upregulated when exposed to root exudates. More proteins were upregulated by the high nodulation competitive strain than that by the low, and the reasons for this need further investigation. The outcome of such study may contribute to our understanding of molecular mechanisms of different competitiveness in B. diazoefficiens as well as specific adaptation in the legume host.