Appearance of a novel form of plant glutamine synthetase during nodule development in Phaseolus vulgaris L.

The activities of glutamine synthetase (GS), nitrogenase and leghaemoglobin were measured during nodule development in Phaseolus vulgaris infected with wild-type or two non-fixing (Fix(-)) mutants of Rhizobium phaseoli. The large increase in GS activity which was observed during nodulation with the wild-type rhizobial strain occurred concomitantly with the detection and increase in activity of nitrogenase and the amount of leghaemoglobin. Moreover, this increase in GS was found to be due entirely to the appearance of a novel form of the enzyme (GSn1) in the nodule. The activity of the form (GSn2) similar to the root enzyme (GSr) remained constant throughout the experiment. In nodules produced by infection with the two mutant strains of Rhizobium phaseoli (JL15 and JL19) only trace amounts of GSn1 and leghaemoglobin were detected.