Lectins and the soybean-Rhizobium symbiosis. I. Immunological investigations of soybean lines, the seeds of which have been reported to lack the 120 000 dalton soybean lectin.

Seeds of six soybean lines (Glycine max (L.) Merr. cv. Columbia, D68-127, Norredo, Sooty, T-102, Wilson 5) have been reported to lack the 120 000 dalton soybean lectin. Immunodiffusion and radioimmunoassay using anti-soybean lectin immunoglobulin failed to detect the lectin in seeds of five lines, but D68-127 seeds contained as much soybean lectin as the control line, Harosoy 63. The D68-127 seed lectin could be purified by affinity chromatography on Sepharose-N-caproylgalactosamine, and was indistinguishable from the conventional soybean lectin by the following criteria: electrophoretic migration in acidic and alkaline buffers, subunit molecular weight and composition, analytical isoelectric focusing, gel filtration chromatography. Phosphate-buffered saline extracts of roots, hypocotyls, stems, and leaves of 3--66-day-old Norredo and Harosoy 63 plants lacked soybean lectin, as determined by hemagglutination and radioimmunoassay (detection limit: 1.4 micrograms soybean lectin/g dry weight tissue). Cotyledons of Harosoy 63 (but not Norredo) contained large quantities of the lectin, which diminished as the plants aged. 5-day-old roots and hypocotyls of 20 soybean lines did not contain soybean lectin. Roots of Columbia, Norredo, Sooty, T-102, Wilson 5, and Harosoy 63 (control) were nodulated by a variety of strains of Rhizobium japonicum and Rhizobium sp.