Molecular diversity of berseem (<italic>Trifolium alexandrinum</italic> L.) rhizobia isolated from Haryana soil

Abstract

Total of forty rhizobia were isolated from nodule samples of berseem crop from farmers' fields representing 17 villages of Haryana state, India. All the isolates were Gram-negative small rods and authenticated as rhizobia by plant infectivity test. Twenty nine rhizobial isolates on the basis of good nodulation characteristics were further selected for molecular diversity study. The amplified PCR product of genomic DNA of all the 29 rhizobia was digested with HaeIII restriction enzyme which resulted in polymorphic bands. Dendrogram based on RFLP of 16S rDNA profiles showed that all the 29 isolates were distributed in two major groups with different subgroups. A total of 7 biotypes were formed at 80% level of similarity by considering each cluster as rhizobial biotype, and out of these, two biotypes (1 st and 5 th ) were found to be most prevalent in all the three districts studied. So, the rhizobia belonging to these two biotypes may be used as biofertilizer in these three districts. Moreover, isolates from same nodule were not 100% similar. It indicated that considerable diversity was present among berseem rhizobial isolates.

Agricultural Microbiology Research Progress in India in the New Millennium

“…Several Rhizobium isolates of pigeon pea, chickpea and soybean in acid soils analyzed by proteomic tools, which showed unique protein differences amongst acid-soil tolerant isolates (Dubey et al, 2016 ). Garg et al (2016) found seven biotypes of `berseem' rhizobia in Haryana soils of which two types were common in three districts showing some degree of endemism even in the high temperature arid soils.…”

Molecular diversity of stress-tolerant PGPR rhizobia nodulating clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.) grown in hyper-arid zone of Rajasthan

“…Previous studies showed that the different legumes in arid zone harbour widely diverse and promiscuous rhizobia residing in nodule endosphere as well as rhizospheric soil (Zahran, 2001). Although different legumes belong to same family there is enormous diversity found among rhizobial community around rhizospheric soil and nodule endosphere (Wadhwa et al 2011;Garg et al 2016). There are various literature found on the diversity of legume rhizobia nodulating different beans but they belong to rhizobial diversity of nodule endosphere or for comparison with R. leguminosarum strains isolated from other legume species (Dudeja et al 2012) or inhabiting in rhizospheric soil (Gera et al 2013), but no significant information is available on the diversity and phylogeny of abiotic stresstolerant rhizobia isolated from clusterbean grown under extreme environmental conditions of hyper-arid zone of India.…”