Summary
The effect of variousRhizobium trifolii strains on the nitrogenase activity profiles of red clover (Trifolium pratense cv. Venla) was studied in greenhouse and field experiments. The nitrogenase activity of nodulated roots or whole plants was measured with the acetylene reduction assay at different stages of plant growth. The mean nitrogenase activity followed plant shoot growth rate from the time when activity was first detected to the onset of flowering. There was a positive correlation between the nitrogenase activity at certain stages of growth and the final harvest yields, whereas at other stages the correlation was absent or negative. Acetylene reduction activity measured at the early stages of plant growth, when the correlation was positive, could be used to screen for high-yielding symbioses betweenR. trifolii and the red clover cultivar Venla. The results suggest that the high-yielding symbioses could be characterized by a nitrogenase activity profile closely linked to plant growth rate, and by a comparatively high nitrogenase activity at early stages of development, the lower-yielding symbioses showing larger deviations of nitrogenase activity from the mean relative shoot growth rate, and being less active at early growth stages.
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Lindström, K. Effect of variousRhizobium trifolii strains on nitrogenase (C2H2) activity profiles of red clover (Trifolium pratense cv. Venla). Plant Soil 80, 79–89 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02232941
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02232941