Critical compromise: Trade-off between symbiosis and water uptake

Abstract

What is the difference between legume crops and other crop species? Legume roots possess specialized organs, nodules where symbiotic rhizobia fix atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia for plants, and, in turn, rhizobia receives the carbon, photosynthetic product from plants (Tiwari et al., 2021). How do the legumes control nodule numbers? Conserved autoregulation of nodulation (AON) signaling is found in legumes, which maintains the optimal nodule number by following root-to-shoot and back-to-root circuit (Roy and Müller, 2022). Disruption of the AON pathway leads to the aberrant formation of nodules, disturbing the metabolic exchange between legumes and rhizobia (Gautrat et al., 2019).