Abstract
A new type of dialysis culture system was used to cocultivate different bacterial species under oligotrophic conditions. In a mineral medium with no added carbon source, the testedRhizobium leguminosarum bv.phaseoli strains outgrew anArthrobacter strain, but not anEnterobacter strain. TheRhizobium strains had generation times of approximately 4.3 h,Enterobacter agglomerans 1.5 h, andArthrobacter globiformis more than 30 h. After adding glutamate to the system to a final concentration of either 2 or 10 µM, we found significant (P < 0.05) differences in growth rates betweenRhizobium leguminosarum bv.phaseoli strains. Strains Ciat 899 and Kim5s showed maximal growth at the 10 µM glutamate concentration with generation times of 2.8 and 3.1 h, respectively. In contrast, strains Ciat 895 and CE3 reacted with increased generation times of 3.8 and 4.3 h. However, when immunofluorescence techniques were used to follow populations of the strains in an acid and a neutral tropical soil, no significant strain differences in decline were observed. Thus, strain survival in unplanted soils was not related to growth rates under oligotrophic conditions. In contrast to this, the ability to grow more or less rapidly under carbon-limited conditions was positively correlated with the known competitiveness ofRhizobium leguminosarum bv.phaseoli strains in legume host nodulation.
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Streit, W., Kipe-Nolt, J. & Werner, D. Competitive growth ofRhizobium leguminosarum bv.phaseoli strains under oligotrophic conditions. Current Microbiology 23, 159–163 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02091976
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02091976