Metabolomic Profiling Reveals an Oxylipin Change during Early Stages of Nodulation in Medicago truncatula

摘要

Leguminous plants like soybean and alfalfa are central to agriculture because of their ability to form a symbiotic association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia), and replenish nitrogen levels in the soil. Consequently, there is great interest in understanding the molecular events that underlie the formation of this association. In recent decades, an elegant combination of genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology with the model legume, Medicago truncatula, have shown that lipo-chito-oligosaccharides, called Nod factors, bind to plasma membrane receptor proteins and rapidly activate complex signaling events within the nucleus of cells of plant root cells. The goal of our research is to better identify key small molecule signals in Medicago truncatula that control the initiation of this symbiotic association with rhizobia.