Identification of rhizobial strains nodulating Egyptian grain legumes

Fifty four bacterial strains were isolated from root nodules of the grain legumes Cicer arietinum, Lens esculentus, Phaseolus vulgaris, Pisum sativum, and Vicia faba grown in cultivated lands of Beni-Suef Governorate (Egypt). Repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) clustered the strains into 15 REP-PCR groups. The nearly complete sequence of the 16S rRNA gene from a representative strain of each REP-PCR pattern showed that the strains were closely related to members of the family Rhizobiaceae of the Alphaproteobacteria. Pairwise alignments between globally aligned sequences indicated that the strains from V. faba had 99.6% identity with Rhizobium leguminosarum, and those from P. vulgaris 99.76% and 100% with sequences from R. leguminosarum and R. mesosinicum, respectively. Strains from P. sativum had 99.76%, 99.84%, and 99.92% sequence identity with R. leguminosarum, R. etli, and R. pisi, respectively, and those from L. esculentus had 99.61% identity with sequences from R. leguminosarum. Sequences of the strains from C. arietinum had 100% identity with those of Mesorhizobium amorphae and M. robiniae, respectively. Nitrogenase activity, determined as acetylene-dependent ethylene production, was detected in nodules formed after inoculation of the corresponding host plant with the representative rhizobial species.