[Identification of Azospirillum genus bacteria isolated from the spring wheat root zone]

Bacteria with high N2-fixing activity were isolated from the root zone of spring wheat grown on leach chernozem and soddy podzolic soil in Ukrainian marshy woodlands. They were characterized by phenotypic signs and investigated with the help of molecular-genetic methods. On the basis of diagnostic signs the investigated strains were referred to Azospirillum brasilense from Azospirillum genus. Their 3'- and 5'-thermal 16S RNA hypervariable sites with length from 373 to 395 nucleotides were amplified and sequenced. The comparative analysis of results confirmed the 100% identity of 16S RNA sequences from investigated bacteria with the same sequences of A. brasilense from Gene Bank database. Thus the results of sequence analysis agree with results obtained during the investigation of phenotypic signs.