Patterns of interaction between Populus Esch5 and Piriformospora indica: a transition from mutualism to antagonism

Piriformospora indica (Sebacinaceae, Basidiomycota) is an axenically cultivable, plant growth promoting root endophyte with a wide host range, including Populus. Rooting of Populus Esch5 explants started within 6 days after transfer to WPM medium. If such plantlets with roots were inoculated with P. indica, there was an increase in root biomass, and the number of 2nd order roots was increased significantly. A totally different observation was recorded when the explants were placed into WPM with pre-grown P. indica. The interaction led to complete blocking of root production and severely inhibited plant growth. Additionally, branched aerial roots appeared which did not penetrate the medium. On contact with the fungal colony or the medium, the ends of the aerial roots became inflated. Prolonged incubation stimulated the fungus to colonize aerial parts of the plant (stem and leaves). Mycelium not only spread on the surface of the aerial parts, but also invaded the cortical tissues inter- and intracellularly. Detached Populus leaves remained vital for 4 - 5 weeks on sterile agar media or on AspM medium with pre-grown P. indica. When the fungus was pre-grown on culture media such as WPM, containing ammonium as the main source of nitrogen, leaves in contact with the cultures turned brownish within 4 - 12 h. Thereafter, the leaves bleached, and about one day later had become whitish. Thus, cultural conditions could alter the behaviour of the fungus drastically: the outcome of the interaction between plant and fungus can be directed from mutualistic to antagonistic, characterized by fungal toxin formation and extension of the colonization to Populus shoots.

Differences in glucosinolate patterns and arbuscular mycorrhizal status of glucosinolate-containing plant species

Under defined laboratory conditions it was shown that two glucosinolate-containing plant species, Tropaeolum majus and Carica papaya, were colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, whereas it was not possible to detect AM fungal structures in other glucosinolate-containing plants (including several Brassicaceae). Benzylglucosinolate was present in all of the T. majus cultivars and in C. papaya it was the major glucosinolate. 2-Phenylethylglucosinolate was found in most of the non-host plants tested. Its absence in the AM host plants indicates a possible role for the isothiocyanate produced from its myrosinase-catalysed hydrolysis as a general AM inhibitory factor in non-host plants. The results suggest that some of the indole glucosinolates might also be involved in preventing AM formation in some of the species. In all plants tested, both AM hosts and non-hosts, the glucosinolate pattern was altered after inoculation with one of three different AM fungi (Glomus mosseae, Glomus intraradices and Gigaspora rosea), indicating signals between AM fungi and plants even before root colonization. The glucosinolate induction was not specifically dependent on the AM fungus. A time-course study in T. majus showed that glucosinolate induction was present during all stages of mycorrhizal colonization.

Molecular characterization and taxonomic affinities of species of the white rot fungus Ganoderma

The systematic affinities of Ganoderma have largely been resolved in the extensive publications of Moncalvo and coworkers (Moncalvo et al., 1995a, b; Hseu et al., 1996). The present communication adds further sequences of the ITS1 region of Ganoderma isolates from Poland and corrects some of the classifications of Ganoderma species. The sequence data indicate that G. australe and G. adspersum are different species. Both morphological and molecular data are in accord with an interspecific separation of G. pfeifferi and G. resinaceum. The ITS1 region is particularly suited for the taxonomic segregation of Ganoderma by molecular methods.

Expression of maize and fungal nitrate reductase genes in arbuscular mycorrhiza

The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in assisting their host plant in nitrate assimilation was studied. With polymerase chain reaction technology, part of the gene coding for the nitrate reductase (NR) apoprotein from either the AM fungus Glomus intraradices or from maize was specifically amplified and subsequently cloned and sequenced. Northern (RNA) blot analysis with these probes indicated that the mRNA level of the maize gene was lower in roots and shoots of mycorrhizal plants than in noncolonized controls, whereas the fungal gene was transcribed in roots of AM plants. The specific NR activity of leaves was significantly lower in AM-colonized maize than in the controls. Nitrite formation catalyzed by NR was mainly NADPH-dependent in roots of AM-colonized plants but not in those of the controls, which is consistent with the fact that NRs of fungi preferentially utilize NADPH as reductant. The fungal NR mRNA was detected in arbuscules but not in vesicles by in situ RNA hybridization experiments. This appears to be the first demonstration of differential formation of transcripts of a gene coding for the same function in both symbiotic partners.

The reduction of nitrous oxide to dinitrogen by Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli K12 reduces nitrous oxide stoichiometrically to molecular nitrogen with rates of 1.9 mumol/h x mg protein. The activity is induced by anaerobiosis and nitrate. N2-formation from N2O is inhibited by C2H2 (Ki approximately 0.03 mM in the medium) and nitrite (Ki = 0.3 mM) but not by azide. A mutant defective in FNR synthesis is unable to reduce N2O to N2. The reaction in the wild type could routinely be followed by gas chromatography and alternatively by mass spectrometry measuring the formation of 15N2 from 15N2O. The enzyme catalyzing N2O-reduction in E. coli could not be identified; it is probably neither nitrate reductase nor nitrogenase. E. coli does not grow with N2O as sole respiratory electron acceptor. N2O-reduction might not have a physiological role in E. coli, and the enzyme involved might catalyze something else in nature, as it has a low affinity for the substrate N2O (apparent Km approximately 3.0 mM). The capability for N2O-reduction to N2 is not restricted to E. coli but is also demonstrable in Yersinia kristensenii and Buttiauxella agrestis of the Enterobacteriaceae. E. coli is able to produce NO and N2O from nitrite by nitrate reductase, depending on the assay conditions. In such experiments NO2- is not reduced to N2 because of the high demand for N2O of N2O-reduction and the inhibitory effect of NO2- on this reaction.