Disruption of the glycine cleavage system enables Sinorhizobium fredii USDA257 to form nitrogen-fixing nodules on agronomically improved North American soybean cultivars.

The symbiosis between Sinorhizobium fredii USDA257 and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] exhibits a high degree of cultivar specificity. USDA257 nodulates primitive soybean cultivars but fails to nodulate agronomically improved cultivars such as McCall. In this study we provide evidence for the involvement of a new genetic locus that controls soybean cultivar specificity. This locus was identified in USDA257 by Tn5 transposon mutagenesis followed by nodulation screening on McCall soybean. We have cloned the region corresponding to the site of Tn5 insertion and found that it lies within a 1.5-kb EcoRI fragment. DNA sequence analysis of this fragment and an adjacent 4.4-kb region identified an operon made up of three open reading frames encoding proteins of deduced molecular masses of 41, 13, and 104 kDa, respectively. These proteins revealed significant amino acid homology to glycine cleavage (gcv) system T, H, and P proteins of Escherichia coli and other organisms. Southern blot analysis revealed the presence of similar sequences in diverse rhizobia. Measurement of beta-galactosidase activity of a USDA257 strain containing a transcriptional fusion of gcvT promoter sequences to the lacZ gene revealed that the USDA257 gcvTHP operon was inducible by glycine. Inactivation of either gcvT or gcvP of USDA257 enabled the mutant to nodulate several agronomically improved North American soybean cultivars. These nodules revealed anatomical features typical of determinate nodules, with numerous bacteroids within the infected cells. Unlike for the previously characterized soybean cultivar specificity locus nolBTUVW, inactivation of the gcv locus had no discernible effect on the secretion of nodulation outer proteins of USDA257.