01873naa a2200229 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000140006024501480007426000090022252011740023165000240140565000220142965000140145165000290146565000150149465000140150970000190152370000180154270000160156077300670157614713522024-06-26       2009    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aMENNA, P.  aRep-PCR of tropical rhizobia for strain fingerprinting, biodiversity appraisal and as a taxonomic and phylogenetic tool.h[electronic resource]  c2009  aWith more than 30 million doses of rhizobial inoculants marketed per year, it is probable that Brazilian agriculture benefits more than any other country from symbiotic N2 fixation. As a result of strain-selection programs, 142 strains of rhizobia are officially recommended for use in commercial inoculants for ninety-six leguminous crops. In this study, sixty-eight of these elite strains were characterized by rep-PCR with the BOX-primer. Reproducibility of the DNA profiles was confirmed, suggesting efficacy of BOX-PCR both for control of quality of inoculants and for preliminary characterization of rhizobial culture collections. Strains of different species never showed similarity higher than 70% in the BOX-PCR analysis, however, some strains of the same species fit into more than one cluster, and correlation between BOX-PCR products and l6S rRNA sequences was low (7.6%). On the other hand, a polyphasic approach ? 20%∶80% of BOX-PCR:16S rRNA which correlated well with the l6S rRNA analysis (95%), and provided higher definition of the genotypes, resulting in clearer indications of the taxonomic groups ? might expedite rhizobial diversity studies.  aInoculation methods  aNitrogen fixation  aBactéria  aFixação de Nitrogênio  aInoculante  aTaxonomia1 aPEREIRA, A. A.1 aBANGEL, E. V.1 aHUNGRIA, M.  tSymbiosis, Philadelphiagv. 48, n. 1-3, p. 120-130, Feb. 2009.