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Symbiotic efficiency and phylogeny of the rhizobia isolated from Leucaena leucocephala in arid–hot river valley area in Panxi, Sichuan, China

  • Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology
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Abstract

In search of effective nitrogen-fixing strains for inoculating Leucaena leucocephala, we assessed the symbiotic efficiency of 41 rhizobial isolates from root nodules of L. leucocephala growing in the arid–hot river valley area in Panxi, China. The genetic diversity of the isolates was studied by analyzing the housekeeping genes 16S rRNA and recA, and the symbiotic genes nifH and nodC. In the nodulation and symbiotic efficiency assay, only 11 of the 41 isolates promoted the growth of L. leucocephala while the majority of the isolates were ineffective in symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Furthermore, one fourth of the isolates had a growth slowing effect on the host. According to the 16S rRNA and recA gene analyses, most of the isolates were Ensifer spp. The remaining isolates were assigned to Rhizobium, Mesorhizobium and Bradyrhizobium. The sequence analyses indicated that the L. leucocephala rhizobia had undergone gene recombination. In contrast to the promiscuity observed as a wide species distribution of the isolates, the results implied that L. leucocephala is preferentially nodulated by strains that share common symbiosis genes. The symbiotic efficiency was not connected to chromosomal background of the symbionts and isolates carrying a similar nifH or nodC showed totally different nitrogen fixation efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31070004), Educational Commission of Sichuan Province of China (09ZB047) and the Specialized Research Found for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20060626006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Sichuan Agricultural University, Yaan, 625014, China

    Kai Wei Xu, Yuan Xue Chen, Qiang Chen & Xiaoping Zhang

  2. Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

    Petri Penttinen

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  1. Kai Wei Xu
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  2. Petri Penttinen
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Zhang.

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Xu, K.W., Penttinen, P., Chen, Y.X. et al. Symbiotic efficiency and phylogeny of the rhizobia isolated from Leucaena leucocephala in arid–hot river valley area in Panxi, Sichuan, China. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 783–793 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-012-4246-2

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