Abstract
The ambitious goal of expanding or enhancing legume production on marginal agricultural land led to the development of a concept that rhizobia in possession of special symbiotic and saprophytic attributes would be required. Although 20 years have passed since the term saprophytic competence was applied to describe soil colonization, survival, and persistence by rhizobia, there is no direct evidence for the possession of specific phenotypes being critical to the success or failure of rhizobia in soil. In this paper, selected data are summarized on the density and dynamics of soil populations of rhizobia. We reaffirm old observations that Bradyrhizobium and Rhizobium might be rather distinct in their saprophytic behavior. Progress in the field of competitive nodulation continues to be slow due not only to our poor understanding of the composition of soil populations, but due to inadequate attention given to the behavior of rhizobia in the soil and rhizosphere phases. Some of our own data are presented which suggest that saprophytic competence may be different between the members of a naturalized population of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii. Such a conclusion is derived from differences measured in: i) population densities of serotypes, ii) percentage of viable cells within serotypes, and iii) kinetics of substrate responsiveness of serotypes. Rhizosphere biologists must begin to integrate the large data base being generated on different ‘specialist’ organisms if a comprehensive understanding of microbial activity, and population dynamics at the root-soil interface is to be achieved.
Technical Paper No. 8888 of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Bottomley, P.J., Maggard, S.P., Leung, K., Busse, M.D. (1991). Importance of saprophytic competence for introduced rhizobia. In: Keister, D.L., Cregan, P.B. (eds) The Rhizosphere and Plant Growth. Beltsville Symposia in Agricultural Research, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3336-4_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3336-4_28
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