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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2009, p. 5396-5404, Vol. 75, No. 16
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00196-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Metabolic Capacity of Sinorhizobium (Ensifer) meliloti Strains as Determined by Phenotype MicroArray Analysis{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Emanuele G. Biondi,1* Enrico Tatti,2 Diego Comparini,1 Elisa Giuntini,3 Stefano Mocali,4 Luciana Giovannetti,2 Marco Bazzicalupo,1 Alessio Mengoni,1 and Carlo Viti2

Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Florence, Via Romana 17, 50125 Florence, Italy,1 Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Section of Microbiology, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 24, 50144 Florence, Italy,2 Department of Biology (Area 3), University of York, P.O. Box 373, York YO10 5YW, United Kingdom,3 C.R.A.—Centro di Ricerca per lo Studio delle Relazioni tra Pianta e Suolo, Via della Navicella 2-4, 00184 Rome, Italy4

Received 28 January 2009/ Accepted 19 June 2009

Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil bacterium that fixes atmospheric nitrogen in plant roots. The high genetic diversity of its natural populations has been the subject of extensive analysis. Recent genomic studies of several isolates revealed a high content of variable genes, suggesting a correspondingly large phenotypic differentiation among strains of S. meliloti. Here, using the Phenotype MicroArray (PM) system, hundreds of different growth conditions were tested in order to compare the metabolic capabilities of the laboratory reference strain Rm1021 with those of four natural S. meliloti isolates previously analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). The results of PM analysis showed that most phenotypic differences involved carbon source utilization and tolerance to osmolytes and pH, while fewer differences were scored for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur source utilization. Only the variability of the tested strain in tolerance to sodium nitrite and ammonium sulfate of pH 8 was hypothesized to be associated with the genetic polymorphisms detected by CGH analysis. Colony and cell morphologies and the ability to nodulate Medicago truncatula plants were also compared, revealing further phenotypic diversity. Overall, our results suggest that the study of functional (phenotypic) variability of S. meliloti populations is an important and complementary step in the investigation of genetic polymorphism of rhizobia and may help to elucidate rhizobial evolutionary dynamics, including adaptation to diverse environments.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Florence, Via Romana 17, Florence, Italy. Phone: 390552288249. Fax: 390552288250. E-mail: emanuele.biondi{at}unifi.it

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 26 June 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2009, p. 5396-5404, Vol. 75, No. 16
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00196-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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