Project

Integrative electron microscopy of nodulation in action – Deciphering molecular interactions at the symbiosome interface of the soybean-Bradyrhizobium symbiosis.

Code
12A8D26N
Duration
01 November 2025 → 31 October 2028
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Intracellular compartments and transport
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Molecular biophysics
Keywords
soybean-rhizobia symbiosis biological nitrogen fixation (in-situ) Cryo-electron microscopy & tomography
 
Project description
Biological nitrogen fixation by rhizobia is an important process in the cultivation of leguminous crops such as soybean. Soybean undergoes a symbiosis with Bradyrhizobium species, where bacteria enter specific root organs (“nodules") and differentiate into nitrogen fixing organelles, the symbiosomes. Whilst the molecular cross-talk that governs the initial steps of the symbiosis is increasingly understood, the molecular landscape at the symbiosome interface is poorly characterised. This project will use different electron microscopy techniques and biophysics to decipher nutrient exchange and communication processes at this plant-bacterial interface. First, a novel in situ structural biology pipeline will be established, where symbiosomes and protoplasts from infected nodule cells are vitrified and subjected to thinning and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). Next, this pipeline will be used to characterise structural features of the symbiosome interface, sampling soybean nodules over time and under nitrate stress. Finally, specific protein complexes active at the symbiosome interface will be fluorescently tagged and structurally analysed using cryo-CLEM combined with cryo-ET, biophysical methods and single particle cryo-EM. Together, these techniques will offer unprecedented detail of molecular processes and protein composition at the symbiosome membranes and will provide a novel in situ structural biology tool for the (inter)national molecular plant biology communities.