Rhizobia, such as B. diazoefficiens , play an important role in the nitrogen cycle by making nitrogen gas bioavailable through symbiosis with legume plants. As climate change threatens soil health, this symbiosis has received increased attention as a more sustainable source of soil nitrogen than the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process.

Climate change poses a threat to soil health and agriculture, but the potential effects of climate change on soil bacteria that can help maintain soil health are understudied. Rhizobia are a group of bacteria that increase soil nitrogen content through a symbiosis with legume plants. The soil and symbiosis are potentially stressful environments, and the soil will likely become even more stressful as the climate changes. Many rhizobia within the bradyrhizobia clade, like Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens, possess the genetic capacity to synthesize hopanoids, steroid-like lipids similar in structure and function to cholesterol. Hopanoids are known to protect against stresses relevant to the niche of B. diazoefficiens. Paradoxically, mutants unable to synthesize the extended class of hopanoids participate in similarly successful symbioses compared to the wild type, despite being delayed in root nodule initiation. Here, we show that in B. diazoefficiens, the in vitro growth defects of extended hopanoid deficient mutants can be at least partially compensated for by the physicochemical environment, specifically by optimal osmotic and divalent cation concentrations. Through biophysical measurements, we show that extended hopanoids confer robustness to environmental variability. These results help explain the discrepancy between previous in vitro and in planta results and indicate that hopanoids may provide a greater fitness advantage to rhizobia in the variable soil environment than the more controlled environment within root nodules. To improve the legume-rhizobia symbiosis through either bioengineering or strain selection, it will be important to consider the full lifecycle of rhizobia, from the soil to the symbiosis.