Photo by Dick Culbert licensed under CC BY 2.0

Legumes are famous the world over for their nitrogen fixing capabilities. These hardy plants can live in soils that would otherwise not support much of anything. As such, nitrogen fixation is one reason that the legumes have found themselves as a focus of agriculture. However, this ability is not solely the plants doing nor has it evolved to benefit humans. Legumes owe their ability to turn a gas into food to a symbiotic relationship with special soil bacteria known collectively as "rhizobia." The legumes produce special root structures called "nodules" to house these bacteria. In return for nitrogen, the bacteria receive carbohydrates and other organic compounds. The nature of this relationship may seem pretty straight forward but, as with anything in nature, the closer we look the more interesting things get. As it turns out, rhizobia also play a role in plant defense.

When a team of researchers began raising Crotalaria, a genus of legume native to Africa, they noticed something strange. Plants that were not inoculated with rhizobia didn't produce nodules nor were they producing any of the alkaloid chemicals that defend them from herbivores. Even adding artificial nitrogen to the soil didn't stimulate the plants to produce their chemical cocktails. Something was going on here and it would seem that the missing bacteria were the key to the puzzle.

Indeed, only after the plants were inoculated with their native rhizobia did they begin producing nodules and eventually the defensive alkaloid compounds. Could it be that the bacteria produce these chemicals for the plant?

Not quite. As it turns out, the area of biosynthesis for these defense compounds happens to be in the root nodules that house the rhizobia. The rhizobia trigger the production of the nodules, which in turn triggers the production of the alkaloids. From there, the plant can export them to above-ground structures as a means of defense. The bacteria are simply a key that unlocks a genetic pathway for defense. Seeing as the alkaloids are, in part, made from nitrogenous molecules, this is not too surprising. There is no sense in trying to make these compounds if the chemical ingredients aren't there. This research serves as further evidence of how complex the microbiome can be.

Photo Credit: Dick Culbert - Wikimedia Commons