Table S1. Information of Primers Used


No.

Name of primer Primer 5'-3' Annotation and Functions 1 pGWC-NopP1.8-F-CTTCAGATATGTTTCGCGAGG Clone the fragment containing NopP and putative promoter into pGWC 2 pGWC-NopP1.8-R-AACACCGAATGGGTATCGCTC Clone the fragment containing NopP and putative promoter into pGWC 3 NopP ΩBamH I F TCGCCATGTACGGTCGGATCCATAGCTCCGATT Site-directed mutagenesis, mutated NopP1.8 had a BamH1 restriction site 4 NopP ΩBamH I R AGCGGTTGCCAGCCTAGGTATCGAGCAGGCTAA Site-directed mutagenesis 5 Kan-BamH1-F tcaagtAGTAAACTGGATGGCTTTCTTG Clone Kanamycin fragment into pGWC-NopP1.8 6 Kan-BamH1-R tcaagtCTTCAGCATCTTTTACTTTCAC Clone Kanamycin fragment into pGWC-NopP1.8 7 pJQ200SK-NopPΩ-F GCTCTAGACTTCAGATATGTTTCGCGAGG Construction of Suicide vector pJQ200SK-NopPΩ to generate HH103ΩNopP 8 pJQ200SK-NopPΩ -R AACTGCAGAACACCGAATGGGTATCGCTC Construction of Suicide vector pJQ200SK-NopPΩ to generate HH103ΩNopP 9 GmUNK1 Fwd-TGGTGCTGCCGCTATTTACTG qRT-PCR for validation of GmUKN1 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-GGTGGAAGGAACTGCTAACAAT 10 Glyma.12G028300 Fwd-CTTCGGATAGCCTCAGTTG qRT-PCR for validation of Gm19g138300 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-AACAACCCGTGAAAGGATT 11 Glyma.12G030000 Fwd-ATTGGTTATTGATACGATTC qRT-PCR for validation of Gm19g140100 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-AAAAAGAAAATACAAGACAAAGC 12 Glyma.12G031200 Fwd-ATTAGTATTATCATCTTGGGAGC qRT-PCR for validation of Gm19g131900 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-CAACACAGGCACACAGCAC 13 Glyma.12G036900 Fwd-TTGAAGATGTGGTTGAATTG qRT-PCR for validation of Gm06G181200 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-TTGGGAATGAAAAGGAAAAT 14 Glyma.12G052400 Fwd-CTTTTTTCGCCCCCTACTT qRT-PCR for validation of Gm06G171700 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-GCACCACAACGAAGAGAATG 15 Glyma.12G055500 Fwd-ATGTTAAGATGTGCCTGAAT qRT-PCR for validation of Gm19g117200 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-CGTTACAGTCAGAAATCCATAG 16 Glyma.12G073000 Fwd-ATATTTTTTTTAACCCTGACGG qRT-PCR for validation of Gm19g129200 gene transcription level in Charleston Rev-ATGTTTGTTTTATTTAGTCCCTC 

Note: Rifampicin(Rif r ); Kanamycin (Kan r ); Chloramphenicol (Cm r ); Gentamicin (Gm r ). 

Table S2 .

 S2 Information of Strains and Vectors. 


	Strain	Relevant Characteristics	Reference
	Escherichia coli		
	DH5α	supE44 lacY169 ( 80lacZM15) hsdR17 recA1 endA1 gyrA96 thi-1 relA1	Mason et al. 1989
	BL21(DE3)	F-ompT hsdSB (rB-mB-) gal dcm (DE3)	Studier et al. 1990
	Rhizobium strains		
	HH103	Broad host range bacterium isolated from nodules of Glycine max , Rif r	Dowdle et al. 1985
	HH103ΩNopP	HH103 insertion mutated containing an Kanamycin resistance gene insertion at position downstream 8bp of start codon of NopP nucleotide sequence, Rif r , Kan r	This work
	Plasmids		
	pGWC	Entry clone vector,Cm r	Chen et al. 2006
	pJQ200SK	Suicide vector used for directed mutagenesis (Gm r )	Quandt and Hynes 1993
	pJQ200SK-NopPΩ	A 2.8kb Xba1-Pst1 fragment containing NopP with a Kanamycin resistance gene inserted into downstream 8bp of start codon of NopP the Xba1-PstI site of pJQ200SK (Gm r )	This work
	pRK2013	Tra + helper plasmid for mobilisation (Kan r )	Figurski and Helinski, 1979
Table S1. Information of Primers Used