UoH-Oxford University collaboration achieves breakthrough in plant symbiosis

Plant symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria (rhizobia) is a key to sustainable agriculture.

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Oxford University collaboration has achieved a breakthrough in plant symbiosis studies.

Plant symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria (rhizobia) is a key to sustainable agriculture. Pulses and other legumes develop complex symbiotic associations with rhizobia at root nodules—rhizobia ‘fix’ and supply nitrogen to the host plants and plants, in return, provide carbon and energy.

According to the UoH, Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), a climate-smart pulse crop of Indian origin, is widely grown in the tropical drylands around the globe. Popularly known as ‘Arhar’, ‘Toor’ or ‘Tuvar’ in the Indian household, pigeon pea serves as a primary protein source for millions of poor people in developing countries. However, the crop often suffers from inconsistent yields and poor nodule formation in India.

A research team led by Prof. Appa Rao Podile, faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences, UoH, in a three-year collaboration with two groups in the United Kingdom (Prof. Philip Poole’s group at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, and Dr. Andrew Neal at Rothamsted Research), has made a breakthrough in plant symbiosis studies.

The team that included three PhD scholars Ch. Danteswari, Anirban Basu, and PVSRN Sarma, assessed the microbial community associated with pigeon pea roots in different soil types and found that root microbial composition was primarily determined by the plant developmental stage and soil type rather than the plant variety.

The study concluded that the low nodulation efficiency of pigeon pea is due to the inadequate presence of appropriate symbionts in the soils, it said adding that Indian soils were mainly found to harbour non-symbiotic Rhizobium spp., rather than symbiotic (nodule-forming) Bradyrhizobium spp.

According to the UoH, the findings will pave the way for selecting and applying appropriate symbionts to improve pigeon pea yields and nodulation under Indian conditions. It suggested that the inoculant strain selection of symbionts for pigeon pea should be based not only on their nitrogen fixation potential but, more importantly, on their competitiveness in agricultural soils.

The results will be published in a high-impact journal entitled ‘mBio’ of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in association with the American Academy of Microbiology, USA, it added.

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