Systemic control of legume susceptibility to rhizobial infection by a mobile microRNA

Abstract

Keeping the doors open for symbiosis Nitrogen fixation by legumes results from a symbiotic partnership between plant and microbes. These together elaborate nodules on the plant roots that house the bacteria. Tsikou et al. identified a microRNA made in the aboveground shoots of Lotus japonicus that translocates to the plant's roots. In the roots, the microRNA posttranscriptionally regulates a key suppressor of symbiosis, thus keeping the uninfected root susceptible to productive infection by symbiotic bacteria. Science , this issue p. 233