Glycosidase and glycosyltransferase activity increase in arbuscular mycorrhiza infected legume roots

With four different cultivars of Glycine max (soybeans) a 3-10 fold increase in specific activity of alpha-mannosidase activity was observed in roots, inoculated with Glomus mosseae compared to the control plants without mycorrhiza development. The increase in α-mannosidase activity after infection with Glomus intraradices was slightly less but still significant. No such effect was found for the beta-D-glucosidase activity. With the model legume Medicago truncatula cultivar Jemalong A17 a more than 3 fold increase in the mRNA levels of two glycosyltransferases compared to the control plants was detected with a macroarray technique. RNA levels of 16 other enzymes involved in membrane and lipid metabolism, such as choline kinase, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, phospholipase D and galactosyltransferase were not significantly increased.