Identification of Rhizobium leguminosarum and Rhizobium sp. (Cicer) strains using a custom fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profile library

The potential of using fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles of Rhizobium leguminosarum by. viceae, phaseoli and trifolii, and Rhizobium sp. (Cicer) strains, for the identification of unknown isolates was assessed. This was achieved by developing a Rhizobium FAME library using 16 different Rhizobium strains of Rh, leguminosarum bv, viceae (n = 5), Rh. leguminosarum by. phaseoli (n = 5), Rh, leguminosarum by. trifolii (n = 1) and Rhizobium sp, (Cirer) (n = 5), Although there were considerable differences between Rh. leguminosarum biovars and strains and Rhizobium sp. (Cicer) strains, the variation within a particular biovar of Rk. leguminosarum was not high. Nevertheless, the feature FAME profiles of the various groups in the library allowed 75 putative rhizobia obtained from surface-sterilized nodules of field-grown lentil and pea plants to be identified.