Genetic diversity of rhizobia associated with indigenous legumes in different regions of Flanders (Belgium)

A large diversity of non-rhizobial endophytes found in legume root nodules in Flanders (Belgium)

“…However, groups present in the ecoregions did not correlate with the groups present in the different plant clusters. When combining our previous study on rhizobial diversity recovered from the same sampling campaign (De Meyer et al, 2011) with the current study, 84.1% of the isolates belonged to the traditional rhizobia groups and only 15.9% were NRE. The Loamy ecoregion yielded the lowest number of culturable NRE (8.04%) and the Campine ecoregion the highest number (24.19%).…”

“…Our aim was to analyse the diversity of non-rhizobial root nodule endophytes (NRE) isolated from various indigenous and exotic legume plants in Flanders (Belgium), to gain insights in their potential nitrogen fixation ability and to investigate possible connections with plant species and ecoregion. Additionally, the results on the rhizobia from our previous study (De Meyer et al, 2011) were compared with the diversity found in the present study.…”

“…Root nodules were collected as previously reported (De Meyer et al, 2011). Briefly, the sampling campaigns were performed over the summers of 2008 and 2009.…”

“…Healthy, non-ruptured nodules were collected to maximise the isolation of root-nodule bacteria. Bacteria were isolated in 2009 and 2010 according to the protocol described previously (De Meyer et al, 2011) and the surface sterilized nodules were rolled over YMA agar plates (Vincent, 1970) to confirm adequate surface sterilisation. The control plates without bacterial growth were considered as successfully surface sterilized and isolates from these nodules were further used in the study.…”

“…In Belgium, legumes are restricted to the Faboideae subfamily and contain 102 plant species in 30 different genera (Lambinon et al, 1998). In a previous study, we assessed the genetic diversity of 3810 isolates belonging to traditional rhizobial genera including Bradyrhizobium, Ensifer, Mesorhizobium and Rhizobium, isolated from a large diversity of indigenous legumes in Flanders (Belgium) (De Meyer et al, 2011). The present study, is based on the same sampling campaigns, however, it focuses on the other bacteria recovered from those root nodules.…”