Evolutionary-genetic bases for symbiotic engineering in plants - a mini review

Microbe-plant symbioses have a great role in development and evolution of plants providing their mineral (nitrogenous, phosphorous) nutrition, resistance to pathogens and phytophagans and the developmental regulation under stress conditions (R.J. Rodriguez et al., 2009). Construction of the highly efficient symbioses should be based on the knowledge on pathways and mechanisms of partners' coevolution occurring in the natural ecosystems and agrocenoses. Using the model of N2-fixing legume-rhizobia symbiosis we show that three major stages of its evolution should be simulated using the methods of symbiotic engineering. It should be aimed at: (i) optimization of partners' exchange by C- and N-compounds; (ii) suppression of partners' competition for nutrients and energy obtained from the environment; (iii) activation of partners' altruistic interactions based on the decrease of microsymbiont survival, for example, development of non-reproducible bacteroids by rhizobia...