| Title | The Role of Wheat Germ Agglutinin in the Attachment of Pseudomonas sp. WS32 to Wheat Root |
|---|---|
| Author | Jian Zhang1, Liyuan Meng1, Yuanyuan Cao1*, Huiping Chang2, Zhongyou Ma3, Leni Sun1, Ming Zhang1, and Xinyun Tang1* |
| Address | 1School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, Anhui Province, P. R. China, 2Henan Institute of Education, Zhengzhou 450046, Henan Province, P. R. China, 3Department of Biology, Anhui Science and Technology University, Bengbu 233100, Anhui Province, P. R. China |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 52(12),1020-1024, 2014, |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12275-014-4089-x |
| Key Words | wheat germ agglutinin, Pseudomonas sp., attachment, wheat roots, fluorescent in situ hybridization |
| Abstract | Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), which is secreted on the surface of wheat root, has been defined as a protein that reversibly and non-enzymatically binds to specific carbohydrates. However, little attention has been paid to the function of WGA in the attachment of bacteria to their host plants. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of WGA in the attachment of Pseudomonas sp. WS32 to wheat roots. Wheat roots were initially treated with double-distilled water, WGA-H (WGA solution that was heated at 100°C for 15 min) and WGA, independently. Subsequently, the roots were coincubated with cell solutions (109 cells/ml). A dilution plate method using a solid nutrient medium was employed to determine the adsorption of WS32 to wheat roots. WGA was labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate and detected using the fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) technique. The number of adsorptive WS32 cells on wheat roots was significantly increased when the wheat roots were pretreated with WGA, compared with the control treatment (p = 0.01). However, WGA-H failed to increase the amount of bacterial cells that attached to the wheat roots because of the loss of its physiological activity. The FISH assay also revealed that more cells adhered to WGA-treated wheat roots than to control or WGA-H-treated roots. The results indicated that WGA can mediate Pseudomonas strain WS32’s adherence to wheat seedling roots. The findings of this study provide a better understanding of the processes involved in plant-microbe interactions. |