Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) is a leguminous cover crop that is generally used as a green manure to sustain soil health in arable land. Molybdenum (Mo) acts as a cofactor for the nitrogenase (NA) and nitrate reductase (NR) enzymes, which are important for nitrogen (N) fixation, nitrate reduction and N transport in plants. In this study, we applied various doses of Mo to soil to evaluate their efficacy on nodulation, nodule characteristics and biomass production of hairy vetch. Mo application increased the number and size of nodules and NA and NR enzyme activity in hairy vetch. This increase in enzyme activity increased N assimilation and led to higher biomass yield. Plants grown in soil that received 0.5 mg Mo kg −1 showed optimal physical and biochemical properties in nodules, and these properties may explain the increased N fixation in hairy vetch. Higher Mo doses (1.0 mg kg −1 ) led to the deterioration of nodule structure and, hence, reduced enzymatic activity in plants. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing and cluster analysis showed that the bacterial isolates found in the nodules of hairy vetch roots belonged to the Rhizobiaceae family and shared high sequence similarity with Rhizobium leguminosarum and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Application of 0.63 mg Mo kg −1 to soil was the optimum dose to maximize the biomass yield of hairy vetch.

(2015) Effect of Rhizobium sp. BARIRGm901 inoculation on nodulation, nitrogen fixation and yield of soybean (Glycinemax) genotypes in gray terrace soil, Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, 79:10, 1660-1668,

Abstract:The experiment was carried out to examine the possibilities of making compost by using layer litter with different bulking materials and to assess the nutritive value of compost. To fulfill the objectives five treatments were considered e.g., anaerobic composting with layer litter (T 1 ), layer litter with straw (T 2 ), layer litter with tree leaves (T 3 ), layer litter with crop residues (T 4 ) and layer litter with saw dust (T 5 ) under soil surface. The samples from composted materials were collected at 0, 10, 20 and 30 days for proximate analysis. At 0 day of layer litter composting DM content did not vary significantly (p>0.01) var ied in all treatments. . At 10 day of layer litter composting DM content was the highest in T 4 (50.0%) and CF content was the highest in T 2 (22.2%) . CP content remained similar varied in all treatments . At 20 day of layer litter composting DM content was highest in T 4 (51.5% ), CP content was the highest in T 4 (19.5%) , CF content was the highest in T 2 (18.0%), Ash content was the highest in T 4 (18.5%) . At 30 day of layer litter composting DM content was the highest in T 2 (51.1%) and CP content was the highest in T 4 (17.6%) . The pH value decreased upto first tendays then gradually increased with the composting period and highest value was obtained by T 1 (8.40) then followed by T 2 (8.20), T 3 (8.15), T 5 (8.10) and T 4 (8.00) (p<0.01) at 30 d of composting. The C/N ratios increased (p<0.01) in all treatments with the advancing of composting period and highest value was obtained in T 4 (27.9) followed by T 1 (26.7), T 5 (26.3), T 3 (26.2) and T 2 (25.3) considerably with the composting period. So, it may be concluded that proximate composition of all samples at 20 days in T 4 treatment was acceptable up to the end of composting period. However, composting layerlitter with crop residues (T 4 ) was more effective compare to other treatments at 20 days of composting in terms of Dry matter, CP content, C/N ration and pH.