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Symbiotic properties of antibiotic-resistant mutants of Rhizobium galegae

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Biologia Plantarum

Abstract

Mutagenesis provoked by exposure to increased concentration of antibiotics of five indigenous Rhizobium galegae strains resulted in the generation of several antibiotic-resistant mutants. The mutants differed from the wild type and one from another in respect to the nodulation capacity, the nitrogenase activity, the nodule ultrastructure, and the plant growth response. Galega plants inoculated with mutants resistant to streptomycin and rifampicin formed nodules with higher nitrogenase activity and accumulated more shoot dry biomass than plants inoculated with the parent strains. Resistance to kanamycin and nalidixic acid was associated with significant decrease of nitrogenase activity. A correlation between nitrogen-fixing efficiency and nodule infected cell ultrastructure was found. When the bacteroids occupied about 10 times higher area in infected cells of nodule than peribacteroid spaces and host cytosol had electron dense and homogenous structure, the nitrogenase activity was the highest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev Str., Bl. 21, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria

    L. Gigova & N. Petrova

  2. Institute of Molecular Biology and Institute of Plant Physiology, Bulgaria

    V. Vassileva & G. Ignatov

Authors
  1. L. Gigova
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  2. N. Petrova
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  3. V. Vassileva
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  4. G. Ignatov
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Gigova, L., Petrova, N., Vassileva, V. et al. Symbiotic properties of antibiotic-resistant mutants of Rhizobium galegae. Biologia Plantarum 40, 433–440 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1001130417407

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1001130417407

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