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Diversity of rhizobia and interactions among the host legumes and rhizobial genotypes in an agricultural-forestry ecosystem

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Abstract

To investigate the diversity of rhizobia and interactions among the host legumes and rhizobial genotypes in the same habitat, a total of 97 rhizobial strains isolated from nine legume species grown in an agricultural-forestry ecosystem were identified into seven genomic species and 12 symbiotic genotypes within the genera Bradyrhizobium, Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium and Sinorhizobium based upon analyses of genomic DNA regions and symbiotic genes. The results evidenced that the symbiotic genotypes of rhizobia were consistent with their hosts of origin; revealed that vertical transfer was the main mechanism in rhizobia to maintain the symbiotic genes but lateral transfer of symbiotic genes might have happened between the closely related rhizobial species; suggested the existence of co-distribution and co-evolution among the legume hosts and compatible rhizobia. All of these data demonstrated that the biogeography of rhizobia was a result of interactions among the host legumes, bacterial genomic backgrounds and environments.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financial supported by the foundation of the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (grant 2006CB100206), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 30670001), and by National Project for Basic S&T Platform Construction (grant 2005DKA21201-10). ETW was supported by the project of SIP 20070538 and 20080322 authorized by IPN, México.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Agro-Microbial Resource and Application, Ministry of Agriculture/College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, China

    Hao Wang, Chao Xin Man & Wen Xin Chen

  2. Departamento de Microbiología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, 11340, México D.F., México

    En Tao Wang

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  1. Hao Wang
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Correspondence to Wen Xin Chen.

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Responsible Editor: Euan K. James.

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Supplementary Fig. A

Dendrogram based on BOX-PCR fingerprints showing the genetic diversity of Vicia rhizobia belonging to Rhizobium–Sinorhizobium, Mesorhizobium and Bradyrhizobium. (PDF 136 KB).

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Wang, H., Man, C.X., Wang, E.T. et al. Diversity of rhizobia and interactions among the host legumes and rhizobial genotypes in an agricultural-forestry ecosystem. Plant Soil 314, 169–182 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9716-z

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