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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1994 August; 60(8): 2772-2778
Copyright © 1994, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Genetic Structure of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar trifolii and viciae Populations Found in Two Oregon Soils under Different Plant Communities

¹ Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-3804
² Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-3804
³ Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
⁴ Michigan State University-Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, and National Science Foundation Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824

ABSTRACT

An investigation was carried out to determine the genetic structure in soil populations of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii and viciae at each of two Oregon sites (A and C) that were 1 km apart. Although the soils were similar, the plant communities were quite different because grazing by domestic animals had been allowed (site A) or prevented (site C). Analysis of allelic variation at 13 enzyme-encoding loci by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis delineated 202 chromosomal types (ETs) among a total of 456 isolates representing two populations of R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii (AT and CT) and two populations of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae (AV and CV). Regardless of their site of origin or biovar affiliation, isolates of the same ET were confirmed to be more closely related to each other than to isolates of other ETs by repetitive extragenic palindromic and enterobacterial repetitive intergeneric consensus sequences and the PCR technique. Despite the wide range in densities of the Rhizobium populations (<10² to >10⁵/g of soil), their overall genetic diversities were similar (mean genetic diversity, 0.45 to 0.51), indicating that low-density populations of soil-borne bacterial species are not necessarily of little genetic diversity. Linkage disequilibrium analysis revealed significant multilocus structure (nonrandom associations of alleles) within each of the four populations. From a combination of cluster and linkage disequilibrium analyses, a total of eight distinct groups of ETs were defined in the four populations. Two groups (I and III) contributed significant numbers of ETs and isolates to each population. The two populations of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae (AV and CV) exhibited similar genetic structures despite existing at different densities, in different plant communities, and in the presence (CV) or absence (AV) of their local Vicia hosts. In contrast, total linkage disequilibrium was partitioned differently in two biovar populations occupying the same soil (AV and AT), with disequilibrium in the latter being due entirely to the presence of group V.

^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Nash Hall, Rm. 220, Corvallis, OR 97331-3804. Phone: (503) 737-1844. Fax: (503) 737-0496. Electronic mail address: bottomlp@ucs.orst.edu.

Technical paper 10,375 of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.

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