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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., Nov 1995, 4016-4021, Vol 61, No. 11
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology

Diversity of Rhizobia Nodulating Phaseolus vulgaris L. in Two Kenyan Soils with Contrasting pHs

B Anyango, KJ Wilson, JL Beynon and KE Giller
Department of Biological Sciences, Wye College, University of London, Wye, Ashford, Kent, TN25 5AH, United Kingdom; Department of Botany, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya; and Center for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia

Rhizobia were isolated from two Kenyan soils with pHs of 4.5 and 6.8 and characterized on the basis of their host ranges for nodulation and nitrogen fixation, colony morphologies, restriction fragment fingerprints, and hybridization with a nifH probe. The populations of rhizobia nodulating Phaseolus vulgaris in the two soils were similar in numbers and in effectiveness of N(inf2) fixation but were markedly different in composition. The population in the Naivasha soil (pH 6.8) was dominated by isolates specific in host range for nodulation to P. vulgaris; these all had multiple copies, in most cases four, of the structural nitrogenase gene nifH. Only one of the isolates from this soil formed effective nodules on Leucaena leucocephala, and this isolate had only a single copy of nifH. By contrast, the population in the acid Daka-ini soil (pH 4.5) was composed largely of broad-host-range isolates which had single copies of nifH. The isolates from the Daka-ini soil which were specific to P. vulgaris generally had three copies of nifH, although one isolate had only two copies. These rhizobial isolates are indigenous to Kenyan soils and yet have marked similarities to previously described Rhizobium species from other continents.

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