Microgravity effects on the legume/rhizobium symbiosis

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation is of critical importance to world agriculture and likely will be a critical part of life support systems developed for prolonged missions in space. Bacteroid formation, an essential step in an effective Dutch White Clover/Rhizobium leguminosarum by trifolii symbiosis, is induced by succinic acid which is produced by the plant and which is bound and incorporated by the bacterium. Aspirin mimics succinate in its role as a bacteroid inducer and measures of aspirin binding mimiced measurements of succinate binding. In normal gravity (1 x g), rhizobium bacteria immediately bound relatively high levels of aspirin (or succinate) in a readily reversible manner. Within a few seconds a portion of this initially bound aspirin became irreversibly bound. In the microgravity environment aboard the NASA 930 aircraft, rhizobia did not display the initial reversible binding of succinate, but did display a similar kinetic pattern of irreversible binding, and ultimately bound 32% more succinate (Acta Astronautica 36:129-133, 1995.) In normal gravity succinate treated cells stop dividing and swell to their maximum size (twice the normal cell volume) within a time equivalent to the time required for two normal cell doublings. Swelling in microgravity was tested in FPA and BPM sample holders aboard the space shuttle (USML-1, and STS-54, 57, and 60.) The behavior of cells in the two sample holders was similar, and swelling behavior of cells in microgravity was identical to behavior in normal gravity.