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Oxidative Burst in Alfalfa-Sinorhizobium meliloti Symbiotic Interaction

¹Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Réponses Adaptatives, Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS-Universités Paris 6 and Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu 75251 Paris cedex 05, France; ²Laboratoire de Biologie Végétale et Microbiologie, CNRS ESA 6169, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 06108 Nice cedex 02, France

Reactive oxygen species are produced as an early event in plant defense response against avirulent pathogens. We show here that alfalfa responds to infection with Sinorhizobium meliloti by production of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. This similarity in the early response to infection by pathogenic and symbiotic bacteria addresses the question of which mechanism rhizobia use to counteract the plant defense response.

Additional keywords: hypersensitive response, nitrogen fixation, symbiosis.