Abstract
Bacteria of the genus Azospirillum (1) are free-living diazotrophs that can readily be isolated from the rhizosphere and roots of grasses (2). No differentiated structures are formed following colonization of the root zone. Bacteria are thightly attached to the root surface and pictures of root hair deformation were reported (for review, see (3) Numerous field experiments, carried out since 1975, have demonstrated that Azospirillum inoculations can promote crop yield under certain environmental and soil conditions. Biochemical and physiological studies on Azospirillum in laboratory conditions suggest that processes like biological nitrogen fixation and plant hormones production might contribute to plant growth responses upon inoculation (3, 4) Until now little is known about the genetics of these bacteria or the molecular biology of their association with plants (5). Most progress has been made in the biochemistry and molecular genetics of nitrogen fixation (6, 7, 8). Recently, efforts to develop tools for the genetic analysis of Azospirillum were reinforced, and research programs to identify bacterial genes in the Azospirillum-plant interaction process were initiated.
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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Vanstockem, M., Michiels, K., Maris, M., Vanderleyden, J., Van Gool, A.P. (1987). Developments in the Genetic Analysis of Azospirillum . In: Verma, D.P.S., Brisson, N. (eds) Molecular genetics of plant-microbe interactions. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4482-4_80
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4482-4_80
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