Sinorhizobium meliloti and Sinorhizobium medicae are two closely related species of the genus Sinorhizobium showing a similar host range, nodulating leguminous species of the genera Medicago, Melilotus and Trigonella, but their phylogenic relationship has not been elucidated yet. In this paper we report the application of three different molecular markers, (i) RFLP of nodD genes, (ii) 16S-23S rDNA intergenic gene spacer fingerprinting and (iii) amplification fragment length polymorphism to S. meliloti and S. medicae strains isolated from the Caucasian area, which is the region of origin of the host plant Medicago. The analysis of data could suggest the origin of S. medicae strains from an ancestral S. meliloti population.

Sinorhizobium meliloti was isolated from nodules and soil from western Tajikistan, a center of diversity of the host plants (Medicago, Melilotus, and Trigonella species). There was evidence of recombination, but significant disequilibrium, between and within the chromosome and megaplasmids. The most frequent alleles matched those in the published genome sequence

A series of Tn5-induced mutants which showed enhanced symbiotic effectiveness (Eff ) was isolated from Rhizobiurn rneliloti strains CXMI-105 and CXMI-188. Alfalfa plants inoculated by the Eff + + mutants had significantly higher shoot dry mass than plants inoculated by the parental strains. In the greenhouse, the most effective mutants increased the shoot dry mass of the host plants by 23-26 O/ O and plant total nitrogen by 23-27 %. Interestingly, the frequency of the E f f -* mutants in strain CXMI-188 was higher than in the strain CXMI-105 (1.1 O/ O versus 0.4%); this was also the case for the auxotrophic mutants (1.2O/0 in CXMI-188 versus 0.3% in CXMI-105). Genetic analysis of the mutants showed that the enhanced symbiotic effectiveness was cotransducible with Tn5. By the use of Southern hybridization and plasmid transfer, it was found that ten Tn5 insertions were located in the chromosome, five in megaplasmid 1, and six in megaplasmid 2.

The mutant T482 of Sinorhizobium meliloti CXM1-105, which carries a Tn5 insertion on megaplasmid 1, exhibits an enhanced symbiotic efficiency phenotype. Three genes, eglC, cya3 and syrB2, were identified in the eff-482 region tagged by the Tn5 insertion in T482. The eglC gene encodes an endoglycanase which contributes to the depolymerization of the exo-polysaccharide succinoglycan. The N-terminal region of the predicted cya3 gene product was similar to eukaryotic-type adenylate cyclases from Brevibacterium liquefaciens and Streptomyces coelicolor. Four contiguous tetratricopeptide repeats which are known to mediate protein-protein interactions were identified in the C-terminal portion of Cya3. Complementation analysis demonstrated that cya3 indeed encodes a functional adenylate cyclase. A central helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif and a putative C-terminal coiled-coil structure implicated in protein oligomerization were found in SyrB2. Extra copies of the syrB2 gene negatively affect transcription of both syrB2 itself and cya3. The Tn5 insertion in T482 was localized between the divergently transcribed genes eglC and syrB2. It eliminated eglC function and slightly stimulated transcription of both syrB2 and cya3, which lies downstream of syrB2. Mutants carrying insertions of the lacZ-Gm interposon in the genes eglC, syrB2 and cya3 exhibit the same phenotype as mutant T482, indicating that these three genes influence symbiotic efficiency.

This paper explores the relationship between the genetic diversity of rhizobia and the morphological diversity of their plant hosts. Rhizobium galegae strains were isolated from nodules of wild Galega orientalis and Galega officinalis in the Caucasus, the center of origin for G. orientalis. All 101 isolates were characterized by genomic amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting and by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the rRNA intergenic spacer and of five parts of the symbiotic region adjacent to nod box sequences. By all criteria, the R. galegae bv. officinalis and R. galegae bv. orientalis strains form distinct clusters. The nod box regions are highly conserved among strains belonging to each of the two biovars but differ structurally to various degrees between the biovars. The findings suggest varying evolutionary pressures in different parts of the symbiotic genome of closely related R. galegae biovars. Sixteen R. galegae bv. orientalis strains harbored copies of the same insertion sequence element; all were isolated from a particular site and belonged to a limited range of chromosomal genotypes. In all analyses, the Caucasian R. galegae bv. orientalis strains were more diverse than R. galegae bv. officinalis strains, in accordance with the gene center theory.Rhizobium galegae (14) is a species that forms an effective symbiosis with plants of Galega orientalis and Galega officinalis, the only species in the genus Galega (Fabaceae) that have been studied for symbiosis. This symbiotic system represents a sharply defined cross-inoculation group. However, there are some differences in symbiotic performance. R. galegae strains are able to infect both Galega species, but strains isolated from G. officinalis form effective nodules on that plant and ineffective nodules on G. orientalis, while the converse is true for strains from G. orientalis (16). This finding, along with a wide range of phenotypic and genotypic approaches using numerical taxonomy (15), phage typing, DNA homology (13, 40), lipopolysaccharide and protein patterns (16), plasmid profiling (29), phylogeny of ribosomal genes (25, 35), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA, and repetitive PCR (21, 28), led to the proposal of two biovars for strains forming an effective symbiosis with G. officinalis (R. galegae bv. officinalis) and G. orientalis (R. galegae bv. orientalis) (24). Symbiosis-related genetic traits were found to be the main factor in genetic divergence between the biovars (24). G. orientalis is a good fodder plant with some widely used cultivars, whereas G. officinalis is rather poisonous because of its high alkaloid content and has no agricultural importance.The interesting symbiotic properties, together with the extensive taxonomic knowledge about R. galegae, prompted us to use the species to answer important questions related to the diversity and evolution of rhizobia and their symbiosis with legumes. A recent study indicated that R.galegae bv. orientalis strains have lower genetic diversity than R. galegae ...