EVIDENCE THAT SOME FRANKIA SP STRAINS ARE ABLE TO CROSS BOUNDARIES BETWEEN ALNUS AND ELAEAGNUS HOST SPECIFICITY GROUPS

Phenotypic and genotypic methods were used to prove the existence of Frankia strains isolated from an Elaeagnus sp. that are able to cross the inoculation barriers and infect Alnus spp. also. Repeated cycles of inoculation, nodulation, and reisolation were performed under axenic conditions. Frankia wild-type strain UFI 13270257 and three of its coisolates did exhibit complete infectivity and effectiveness on Elaeagnus spp. and Hippophae rhamnoides and variable infectivity on Alnus spp. Microscopical observation of host plant roots showed that these strains are able to infect Alnus spp. by penetrating deformed root hairs. Reisolates obtained from nodules induced on monoxenic Alnus glutinosa, Alnus incana, and Elaeagnus angustifolia resembled the parent strains in host infectivity range, in planta and in vitro morphophysiology, isoenzymes, and nif and rrn restriction fragment length polymorphisms, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates on both host plant genera. Alnus and Elaeagnus group-specific polymerase chain reaction DNA amplifications, DNA-DNA hybridizations, and partial gene sequences coding for 16S rRNA provided evidence for the genetic uniformity of wild-type strains and their inclusion into one and the same genomic species, clearly belonging to the Elaeagnus group of Frankia species.