Journal article
A simple in situ assay to assess plant-associative bacterial nitrogenase activity
- Abstract:
- Assessment of plant-associative bacterial nitrogen (N) fixation is crucial for selection and development of elite diazotrophic inoculants that could be used to supply cereal crops with nitrogen in a sustainable manner. Although diazotrophic bacteria possess diverse oxygen tolerance mechanisms, most require a sub 21% oxygen environment to achieve optimal stability and function of the N-fixing catalyst nitrogenase. Consequently, assessment of N fixation is routinely carried out on "free-living" bacteria grown in the absence of a host plant and such experiments may not accurately divulge activity in the rhizosphere where the availability and forms of nutrients such as carbon and N, which are key regulators of N fixation, may vary widely. Here, we present a modified <i>in situ</i> acetylene reduction assay (ARA), utilizing the model cereal barley as a host to comparatively assess nitrogenase activity in diazotrophic bacteria. The assay is rapid, highly reproducible, applicable to a broad range of diazotrophs, and can be performed with simple equipment commonly found in most laboratories that investigate plant-microbe interactions. Thus, the assay could serve as a first point of order for high-throughput identification of elite plant-associative diazotrophs.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 1.2MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3389/fmicb.2021.690439
Authors
- Publisher:
- Frontiers Media
- Journal:
- Frontiers in Microbiology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 12
- Article number:
- 690439
- Publication date:
- 2021-06-23
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-05-25
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1664-302X
- Pmid:
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34248916
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1186656
- Local pid:
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pubs:1186656
- Deposit date:
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2021-09-20
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Haskett et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- ©2021 Haskett, Knights, Jorrin, Mendes and Poole. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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