Utility of Rhizobium in the phyllosphere of crop plants under field conditions

Abstract

SUMMARYSoya bean, Bengal gram and lentil plants were grown under field conditions and sprayed with suspensions of different strains ofRhizobium. Irrespective of crossinoculation groups beneficial effects were similar to those observed in nitrogen-free sand culture with respect to dry weight, chlorophyll and N contents. The beneficial effects of sprayingRhizobiumstrains compared favourably with seed treatment by appropriateRhizobiumstrains and application of urea. Both an ineffective strain and a mutant strain ofR. japonicumshowed similar beneficial effects. Acetylene reduction by theRhizobium-leafassociation ranged from 497 to 890 nmol/g leaf/h. The ectosymbiotic association ofRhizobiumwith foliage of legumes, thus, may meet to a large extent the nitrogen requirement of such plants.

Long-Term Warming Shifts the Composition of Bacterial Communities in the Phyllosphere of Galium album in a Permanent Grassland Field-Experiment

“…They contributed with 1.4% to the differences between the leaf microbiota from C and T plots ( Figure 6 ). Members of the genus Rhizobium were often reported as phyllosphere inhabiting bacteria ( Wellner et al, 2011 ; Knief et al, 2012 ; Horton et al, 2014 ) with beneficial effects on the plant phyllosphere ( Nandi et al, 1982 ). Rhizobium sp.…”

Utility of Rhizobium in the phyllosphere of crop plants: two-way exchange of metabolites between Rhizobium and the host plant

“…The two previous papers (Nandi, Sengupta & Sen, 1982 a, b) were concerned with the utility of rhizobia as phyllosphere micro-organisms in nitrogen nutrition of the host plants. The enhanced N-content of the host plants in nitrogen-free sand culture and the demonstration of appreciable acetylene reduction by Rhizobium cells in association with the leaves indicate the fixation of significant quantities of nitrogen by Rhizobium inhabiting the leaf surfaces.…”