Biodiv Sci ›› 2009, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (1): 69-75.  DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1003.2009.08218

Special Issue: 土壤生物与土壤健康

• Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Genetic diversity in rhizobia isolated from Sphaerophysa salsula in several regions of northwestern China

Lin Xu1,2, Jiajie Xu1, Qiaoli Liu1, Ruimei Xie1, Gehong Wei1,*()   

  1. 1 College of Life Sciences, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100
    2 Department of Life Science and Engeneering, Hexi University, Zhangye, Gansu 734000
  • Received:2008-08-28 Accepted:2008-12-14 Online:2009-01-20 Published:2009-01-20
  • Contact: Gehong Wei

Abstract:

Sphaerophysa salsula is a highly nutritive and drought-tolerant perennial grass distributed in mid-Asia and northwestern China. This legume plant is highly prized for the revegetation of drought and high alkali soils. Our objective was to better understand the diversity and phylogeny of rhizobia collected from nodules of Sphaerophsa salsula in different regions of northwestern China. We estimated genetic diversity using 16S rDNA PCR-RFLP and 16S rDNA sequencing. Nine genotypes were tested from 57 strains. 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that these rhizobial strains belonged to the following genera: Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium, Sinorhizobium, Agrobacterium, Phyllobacterium and Shinella kummerowiae. The Jaccard similarity coefficient of the strains from Yinchuan was low while the strains isolated from Minle and Linze had rich diversity, with Simpson indices of 0.826 and 0.710, respectively, and Shannon-Wiener indices of 1.831 and 1.530, respectively. This study provides basic information for the phylogeny of rhizobia in northwestern China.

Key words: Sphaerophysa salsula, phylogeny, 16S rDNA PCR-RFLP, 16S rDNA sequencing, genetic diversity