Genetic structure of the introduced and local populations of Rhizobioum leguminosarum in plant-soil systems

• Published in: Microbiology (New York) 2012-04, Vol.81 (2), p.224-232
• Main Authors: Provorov, N. A., Andronov, E. E., Onishchuk, O. P., Kurchak, O. N., Chizhevskaya, E. P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Experimental Articles; Life Sciences; Medical Microbiology; Microbiology
• ISSN: 0026-2617; 1608-3237
• DOI: 10.1134/S0026261712020129

Comparative study of Rhizobium leguminosarum populations formed under the conditions of the Srednii Island (White Sea) demonstrated the introduced clover rhizobia ( R. l. bv. trifolii ) to be more variable than the aboriginal vetch/vetchling rhizobia ( R. l. bv. viceae ) in the chromosomal IGS locus, while being less variable in the plasmid-located symbiotic genes nodD and nifH . The analysis of these genes revealed the most pronounced differences between the clover and vetch/vetchling rhizobia populations. These differences, together with the results of ERIC-fingerprinting, indicated that the evolution of the clover rhizobia was mainly linked with the adaptation to local soil environment, and the evolution of the vetch/vetchling rhizobia, to the adaptation to various species of the host plants. High panmixia of R. leguminosarum population suggests its evolution to be based on the combinatory variability associated with the transfer of Sym -plasmids between R. l. bv. trifolii and R. l. bv. viceae , as well as with genomic rearrangements in the resulting recombinants.