Distinctive Features of Rhizobia Species Sinorhizobium fredii and Bradyrhizobium japonicum Inhabiting Soils of the Russian Far East

In the framework of the comprehensive research of Far Eastern natural populations of soybean nodule bacteria, laboratory experiments have been conducted at the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Soybean (Blagoveshchensk) with the purpose to identify distinctive features of rhizobia species Sinorhizobium fredii (Scholla and Elkan, 1984) and Bradyrhizobium japonicum (Jordan, 1982) whose pure cultures were isolated from soils of Far Eastern regions practicing soybean cultivation. It is established that B. japonicum strains start growing in Petri dishes on the seventh to tenth and even on the 20th day after the inoculation, assimilate a limited number of carbon nutrition sources, release mostly alkaline metabolic products, and feature a relatively low osmotic resistance. Representatives of this species are susceptible to extreme environmental conditions; their growth sharply slows down on acidic and alkaline nutrient media and stops at high (37–42°C) temperatures. However, under the optimal conditions, this rhizobia species dominates in the nodulation of soybean plants due to its high and persistent virulence. The restriction analysis of the studied B. japonicum strains confirmed their identity. S. fredii strains start growing in Petri dishes on the second to fourth day after the inoculation, assimilate well a broad spectrum of carbon nutrition sources, and release acidic metabolic products. Most strains of this species feature high osmotic resistance. Cultures retaining universal growth capacity under extreme environmental conditions (high temperatures and low and high pH values) have been identified in the group of S. fredii strains. This rhizobia species can predominate in the formation of symbiotic mechanisms in years featuring extreme weather conditions. Enzymatic fermentation of gene 16S rRNA in the studied S. fredii strains was performed using restriction enzyme HaeIII; the analysis of the fermentation results confirmed the identity of these strains. The RAPD-PCR analysis has demonstrated the intraspecific specificity of the studied B. japonicum and S. fredii strains: these species feature high degrees of polymorphism reflecting their population heterogeneity.