This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Zurdo-Piñeiro, J. L. Articles by van Berkum, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Zurdo-Piñeiro, J. L. Articles by van Berkum, P. Pubmed/NCBI databases Protein Agricola Articles by Zurdo-Piñeiro, J. L. Articles by van Berkum, P.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2009, p. 2354-2359, Vol. 75, No. 8
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02811-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Rhizobia from Lanzarote, the Canary Islands, That Nodulate Phaseolus vulgaris Have Characteristics in Common with Sinorhizobium meliloti Isolates from Mainland Spain

José Luis Zurdo-Piñeiro,¹ Paula García-Fraile,¹ Raúl Rivas,¹ Alvaro Peix,² Milagros León-Barrios,³ Anne Willems,⁴ Pedro Francisco Mateos,¹ Eustoquio Martínez-Molina,¹ Encarna Velázquez,^1* and Peter van Berkum⁵

Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain,¹ Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología, IRNASA-CSIC, Salamanca, Spain,² Departamento de Microbiología y Biología Celular, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain,³ Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Vakgroep Biochemie, Fysiologie en Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent K.L, Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium,⁴ U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS, Soybean Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland 20705⁵

Received 11 December 2008/ Accepted 4 February 2009

The stable, low-molecular-weight (LMW) RNA fractions of several rhizobial isolates of Phaseolus vulgaris grown in the soil of Lanzarote, an island of the Canary Islands, were identical to a less-common pattern found within Sinorhizobium meliloti (assigned to group II) obtained from nodules of alfalfa and alfalfa-related legumes grown in northern Spain. The P. vulgaris isolates and the group II LMW RNA S. meliloti isolates also were distinguishable in that both had two conserved inserts of 20 and 46 bp in the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer region that were not present in other strains of S. meliloti. The isolates from P. vulgaris nodulated bean but not Medicago sativa, while those recovered from Medicago, Melilotus, and Trigonella spp. nodulated both host legumes. The bean isolates also were distinguished from those of Medicago, Melilotus, and Trigonella spp. by nodC sequence analysis. The nodC sequences of the bean isolates were most similar to those reported for S. meliloti bv. mediterranense and Sinorhizobium fredii bv. mediterranense (GenBank accession numbers DQ333891 and AF217267, respectively). None of the evidence placed the bean isolates from Lanzarote in the genus Rhizobium, which perhaps is inconsistent with seed-borne transmission of Rhizobium etli from the Americas to the Canaries as an explanation for the presence of bean-nodulating rhizobia in soils of Lanzarote.

---

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Lab. 209, Edificio Departamental de Biología, Campus M. Unamuno, 37007 Salamanca, Spain. Phone: 34 923 294532. Fax: 34 923 224876. E-mail: evp{at}usal.es

Published ahead of print on 13 February 2009.

---

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2009, p. 2354-2359, Vol. 75, No. 8
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02811-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.