title: Rhizobia from Lanzarote, the Canary Islands, that nodulate Phaseolus vulgaris have characteristics in common with Sinorhizobium meliloti isolates from mainland Spain.
abstract: The stable, low-molecular-weight (LMW) RNA fractions of several rhizobial isolates of Phaseolus vulgaris grown in the soil of Lanzarote, an island of the Canary Islands, were identical to a less-common pattern found within Sinorhizobium meliloti (assigned to group II) obtained from nodules of alfalfa and alfalfa-related legumes grown in northern Spain. The P. vulgaris isolates and the group II LMW RNA S. meliloti isolates also were distinguishable in that both had two conserved inserts of 20 and 46 bp in the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer region that were not present in other strains of S. meliloti. The isolates from P. vulgaris nodulated bean but not Medicago sativa, while those recovered from Medicago, Melilotus, and Trigonella spp. nodulated both host legumes. The bean isolates also were distinguished from those of Medicago, Melilotus, and Trigonella spp. by nodC sequence analysis. The nodC sequences of the bean isolates were most similar to those reported for S. meliloti bv. mediterranense and Sinorhizobium fredii bv. mediterranense (GenBank accession numbers DQ333891 and AF217267, respectively). None of the evidence placed the bean isolates from Lanzarote in the genus Rhizobium, which perhaps is inconsistent with seed-borne transmission of Rhizobium etli from the Americas to the Canaries as an explanation for the presence of bean-nodulating rhizobia in soils of Lanzarote.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Zurdo-Piñeiro
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: García-Fraile
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rivas
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peix
authors.forename: Milagros
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: León-Barrios
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.forename: Pedro Francisco
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Mateos
authors.forename: Eustoquio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martínez-Molina
authors.forename: Encarna
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Velázquez
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Berkum
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D029902:Medicago / Q000382:microbiology; D000455:Medicago sativa / Q000382:microbiology*; D029903:Melilotus / Q000382:microbiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D027805:Phaseolus / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D012231:Rhizobium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016962:Sinorhizobium meliloti / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013030:Spain; D029910:Trigonella / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer