Rhizobia are well-known for their ability to infect and nodulate legume roots, forming a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis of agricultural importance. In addition, recent studies have shown that rhizobia can colonize roots and aerial plant tissues of rice as a model plant of the Graminaceae family. Here we show that rhizobia can invade tobacco, a model plant belonging to the Solanaceae family. Inoculat...

Fertilizer application is a common anthropogenic alteration to terrestrial systems. Increased nutrient input can impact soil microbial diversity or function directly through altered soil environments, or indirectly through plant-microbe feedbacks, with potentially important effects on ecologically-important plant-associated mutualists. We investigated the impacts of plant fertilizer, containing...

Rhizobia promote the growth of plants either directly through N2 fixation, supply of nutrients, synthesis of phytohormones and solubilization of minerals, or indirectly as a biocontrol agent by inhibiting the growth of pathogens. The biocontrol effect of rhizobia is due to the secretion of secondary metabolites such as antibiotics and HCN. Siderophore production in iron stress conditions provid...

Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) Macmillan) has potential as a grain and forage legume for the American Midwest. Inoculant-quality rhizobia for this legume have been identified but not previously characterized. Rhizobia trapped from 20 soils in the natural range of the Illinois bundleflower had characteristics that placed them overwhelmingly within the species Rhizobium gi...

chickpea is commonly grown in large scales in the western part of iran (kermanshah, hamedan, lorestan and chahar mahal & bakhtiari) and it forms a symbiotic relationship with rhizobia which promotes legumes growth through nitrogenfixation. therefore, it is important to evaluate the population genetic structure of rhizobia nodulating chickpea in various areas to manage extension of chickpea cult...

Habitat fragmentation affects the biodiversity and function of aboveground organisms in natural ecosystems but has not been studied for effects on belowground species. In this paper, we consider the diversity of the rhizobia associated with the indigenous legume Dalea purpurea in 3 residual prairie areas in Minnesota and Iowa. Using Dalea purpurea as a trap host, 218 rhizobia were recovered fro...

The carbon that rhizobia in root nodules receive from their host powers both N(2) fixation, which mainly benefits the host, and rhizobium reproduction. Rhizobia also store energy in the lipid poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), which may enhance rhizobium survival when they are carbon limited, either in nodules or in the soil between hosts. There can be a conflict of interest between rhizobia and leg...

Rhizobia form symbiotic nitrogen-fixing nodules on leguminous plants, which provides an important source of fixed nitrogen input into the soil ecosystem. The improvement of symbiotic nitrogen fixation is one of the main challenges facing agriculture research. Doing so will reduce the usage of chemical nitrogen fertilizer, contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture practices to d...

Two important questions about mutualisms are how the fitness costs and benefits to the mutualist partners are determined and how these mechanisms affect the evolutionary dynamics of the mutualism. We tackle these questions with a model of the legume-rhizobium symbiosis that regards the mutualism outcome as a result of biochemical negotiations between the plant and its nodules. We explore the fi...

Abstract Background and aims For invasive plant species that associate with mutualistic symbionts, partner quality can be critical to their invasion success. This might particularly true for legumes host nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia). Here, we examined the relative effectiveness of rhizobial strains on legume Lupinus polyphyllus . Methods We isolated rhizobia from field populations L. con...