KIN3 impacts arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and promotes fungal colonisation in Medicago truncatula

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi help their host plant in the acquisition of nutrients, and this association is itself impacted by soil nutrient levels. High phosphorus levels inhibit the symbiosis, whereas high nitrogen levels enhance it. The genetic mechanisms regulating the symbiosis in response to soil nutrients are poorly understood. Here, we characterised the symbiotic phenotypes in four Medicago truncatula Tnt1-insertion mutants affected in arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation. We located their Tnt1 insertions and identified alleles for two genes known to be involved in mycorrhization, RAM1 and KIN3. We compared the effects of the kin3-2 and ram1-4 mutations on gene expression, revealing that the two genes alter the expression of overlapping but not identical gene sets, suggesting that RAM1 acts upstream of KIN3. Additionally, KIN3 appears to be involved in the suppression of plant defences in response to the fungal symbiont. KIN3 is located on the endoplasmic reticulum of arbuscule-containing cortical cells, and kin3-2 mutants plants hosted significantly fewer arbuscules than the wild type. KIN3 plays an essential role in the symbiotic response to soil nitrogen levels, as, contrary to wild-type plants, the kin3-2 mutant did not exhibit increased root colonisation under high nitrogen.