ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Genomics of Plants and the Phytoecosystem
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1600377
This article is part of the Research TopicGenetic and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Forage and Grass Species Responding to Abiotic StressView all articles
Mechanism of nodulation and nitrogen fixation of Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum Bieb.) based on transcriptomics and proteomics
Provisionally accepted
- 1Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
- 2Institute of Grassland Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
- 3Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
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Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum Bieb.), a perennial legume forage grass, exhibits a strong adaptability and resistance to adverse conditions. Owing to its rhizome specificity, it cannot nodulate or fix nitrogen outside of its original location, which limits its promotion and cultivation. The phenomenon of spontaneous nodulation of Caucasian clover was observed for the first time in Inner Mongolia, and investigation of its nodulation and nitrogen fixation mechanisms assists in the subsequent promotion of Caucasian clover cultivation from theoretical perspectives. In this study, rhizobacteria extracted from Caucasian clover were inoculated into the field, and the nodulation part of the root system was investigated at the return of the second year using transcriptomics and proteomics techniques. The study identified 70,280 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 770 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in total, among which carbonic anhydrase, cyanate lyase, phenylalanine, caffeate/5-hydroxyferulate 3-O-methyltransferase, caffeoyl CoA 3-Omethyltransferase, chalcone synthase, and chalcone isomerase may have been the main factors affecting nodulation of Caucasian clover nodule nitrogen fixation. This study theoretically contributes to the future genetic validation and selection of Caucasian clover varieties with a strong ability to nodulate and fix nitrogen.1 Introduction Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum Bieb.) is a long-rooted tiller legume forage native to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region and exhibits excellent adaptability, cold resistance, and other natural endowments owing to the harsh local environment. Since the 1970s, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and other countries have introduced and domesticated Caucasian clover and 3 删除[Raphael]: 3
Keywords: Caucasian clover, nodulation, Nitrogen Fixation, Transcriptomics, Proteomics
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Hao, Guo, Wang and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mingjiu Wang, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
Fan Huang, Institute of Grassland Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot, 010010, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
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