Soybean interactions with soil microbes, agronomical and molecular aspects (2010)

Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, is one of the most important food crops in the world. High soybean yields require large amounts of N fertilizers, which are expensive and can cause environmental problems. The industrial fixation of nitrogen accounts for about 50% of fossil fuel usage in agriculture. In contrast, biological fixation of N2 is a low-cost source of N for soybean cropping through the symbiotic association between the plant and soil bacteria belonging to the genera Bradyrhizobium and Sinorhizobium, which are collectively called “soybean rhizobia“. In general, symbiotic nitrogen fixation in crop legumes not only reduces fertilizer costs but also improves soil fertility through crop rotation and intercropping. Biological nitrogen fixation is due to symbioses between leguminous plants and species of Rhizobium bacteria. Replacing this natural N source by synthetic N fertilizers would cost around 10 billion dollars annually. Moreover, legume seed and foliage have a higher protein content than that of non-legumes, and this makes them desirable protein crops. There is a wide knowledge of the industrial elaboration and use of commercial soybean inoculants based on bradyrhizobia strains. At present, the technology to prepare different types of inoculants, either solid or liquid, is sufficiently developed to meet market requirements, although further research and investments are still required to improve the symbiotic efficacy of rhizobial inoculants. Inoculation of soybeans under field conditions has been successful in the USA, Brazil and Argentina, which are the world leaders in soybean cultivation in terms of acreage and grain yields. There are, however, limitations to a wider use of rhizobial inoculants: the size of indigenous soil rhizobial populations can prevent the successful use of inoculants in some particular areas. For example, many Chinese soils contain more than 105 soybean rhizobia per gram of soil, which imposes a serious barrier for nodule occupancy by the soybean rhizobia used as an inoculant. The use of inoculants based on soil bacteria other than rhizobia has also increased in the last decades. An example is the genus Azospirillum, which can be used for its capacity to increase plant growth and seed yields through different mechanisms, such as the production of plant hormones and the increase in phosphate uptake by roots. In addition, co-inoculation with Azospirillum and rhizobia enhances nodulation and nitrogen fixation. Although less developed, it is expected that inoculants based on mycorrhizal fungi will also play a relevant role in sustainable agriculture and forestry. In spite of any possible limitations, the use of inoculants appears compulsory in a frame of sustainable agriculture, which seeks to increase crop yields and nutrient-use efficiency while reducing the environmental costs associated with agriculture intensification. This review also summarizes some of the most relevant genetic aspects of soybean rhizobia in relation to their symbiosis with soybeans. They can be listed as follows: (1) legume roots exude flavonoids, which are able to activate the transcription of nodulation (nod, nol, noe) genes; (2) expression of nodulation genes results in the production and secretion of lipo-chitin oligosaccharide signal molecules, called LCOs or “Nod factors”, which activate nodule organogenesis in the legume root; (3) LCOs induce numerous responses of the legume roots, such as hair curling and the formation of nodule primordia in the inner or outer cortex; (4) the function of many soybean rhizobia nod genes is known and the chemical structure of the LCOs produced has been determined; (5) in addition to LCOs, different soybean rhizobia surface polysaccharides are required for the formation of nitrogenfixing nodules; (6) surface polysaccharides might act as signal molecules or could prevent plant defense reactions. Cyclic glucans, capsular polysaccharides and lipopolysaccharides appear to play relevant roles in the soybean nodulation process since rhizobial mutants affected in any of these surface polysaccharides are symbiotically impaired. Present knowledge of the molecular bases determining cultivar-strain specificity and nodule occupancy by soybean rhizobia competitors is clearly insufficient. This lack of information is a serious barrier for developing strategies aimed at improving nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation of commercial inoculants. In spite of these difficulties, recent studies have shown that the signaling pathway involved in triggering nodule organogenesis is independent of that operating in bacterial entry through infection thread formation. Theses facts might offer new insights for improving symbiotic nitrogen fixation and also for the feasibility of transferring nodule organogenesis, a first step in expanding this symbiotic interaction into other agriculturally important species.