Ensifer (Sinorhizobium) medicae is an effective nitrogen fixing microsymbiont of a diverse range of annual Medicago (medic) species. Strain WSM419 is an aerobic, motile, non-spore forming, Gram-negative rod isolated from a M. murex root nodule collected in Sardinia, Italy in 1981. WSM419 was manufactured commercially in Australia as an inoculant for annual medics during 1985 to 1993 due to its nitrogen fixation, saprophytic competence and acid tolerance properties. Here we describe the basic features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence, and annotation. This is the first report of a complete genome sequence for a microsymbiont of the group of annual medic species adapted to acid soils. We reveal that its genome size is 6,817,576 bp encoding 6,518 protein-coding genes and 81 RNA only encoding genes. The genome contains a chromosome of size 3,781,904 bp and 3 plasmids of size 1,570,951 bp, 1,245,408 bp and 219,313 bp. The smallest plasmid is a feature unique to this medic microsymbiont.

The aim of this study was to determine the role of the phosphorylation state of glycogen synthase and glycogen phosphorylase in the regulation of muscle glycogen repletion in fasted animals recovering from high-intensity exercise. Groups of rats were swum to exhaustion and allowed to recover for up to 120 min without access to food. Swimming to exhaustion caused substantial glycogen breakdown and lactate accumulation in the red, white and mixed gastrocnemius muscles, whereas the glycogen content in the soleus muscle remained stable. During the first 40 min of recovery, significant repletion of glycogen occurred in all muscles examined except the soleus muscle. At the onset of recovery, the activity ratios and fractional velocities of glycogen synthase in the red, white and mixed gastrocnemius muscles were higher than basal, but returned to pre-exercise levels within 20 min after exercise. In contrast, after exercise the activity ratios of glycogen phosphorylase in the same muscles were lower than basal, and increased to pre-exercise levels within 20 min. This pattern of changes in glycogen synthase and phosphorylase activities, never reported before, suggests that the integrated regulation of the phosphorylation state of both glycogen synthase and phosphorylase might be involved in the control of glycogen deposition after high-intensity exercise.

Nitrogen fixing rhizobia associated with the Medicago L. genus belong to two closely related species Sinorhizobium medicae and S. meliloti. To investigate the symbiotic requirements of different Medicago species for the two microsymbionts, 39 bacterial isolates from nodules of eleven Medicago species growing in their natural habitats in the Mediterranean basin plus six historical Australian commercial inocula were symbiotically characterized with Medicago hosts. The bacterial species allocation was first assigned on the basis of symbiotic proficiency with M. polymorpha. PCR primers specific for 16S rDNA were then designed to distinguish S. medicae and S. meliloti. PCR amplification results confirmed the species allocation acquired in the glasshouse. PCR fingerprints generated from ERIC, BOXA1R and nif-directed RPO1 primers revealed that the Mediterranean strains were genetically heterogenous. Moreover PCR fingerprints with ERIC and BOX primers showed that these repetitive DNA elements were specifically distributed and conserved in S. meliloti and S. medicae, clustering the strains into two divergent groups according to their species. Linking the Sinorhizobium species with the plant species of origin we have found that S. medicae was mostly associated with medics well adapted to moderately acid soils such as M. polymorpha, M. arabica and M. murex whereas S. meliloti was predominantly isolated from plants naturally growing on alkaline or neutral pH soils such as M. littoralis and M. tornata. Moreover in glasshouse experiments the S. medicae strains were able to induce well-developed nodules on M. murex whilst S. meliloti was not infective on this species. This feature provides a very distinguishing characteristic for S. medicae. Results from the symbiotic, genotypic and cultural characterization suggest that S. meliloti and S. medicae have adapted to different Medicago species according to the niches these medics usually occupy in their natural habitats.

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It has recently been shown that food intake is not essential for the resynthesis of the stores of muscle glycogen in fasted animals recovering from high-intensity exercise. Because the effect of diabetes on this process has never been examined before, we undertook to explore this issue. To this end, groups of rats were treated with streptozotocin (60 mg/kg body mass ip) to induce mild diabetes. After 11 days, each animal was fasted for 24 h before swimming with a lead weight equivalent to 9% body mass attached to the tail. After exercise, the rate and the extent of glycogen repletion in muscles were not affected by diabetes, irrespective of muscle fiber composition. Consistent with these findings, the effect of exercise on the phosphorylation state of glycogen synthase in muscles was only minimally affected by diabetes. In contrast to its effects on nondiabetic animals, exercise in fasted diabetic rats was accompanied by a marked fall in hepatic glycogen levels, which, surprisingly, increased to preexercise levels during recovery despite the absence of food intake.