Plasmid diversity of Sinorhizobium (Ensifer) bacteria

Genetic evidences have shown that the rhizobium bacteria nodulate the legume plants because of nod, sym and fix genes. Almost all members of rhizobaceae family harbor large plasmids, which are highly variable in number and size. Representative of nif, fix and nod genes have been located on the symbiotic plasmids of different rhizobium species. Therefore, the size and numbers of plasmids of bacterial isolates (by the plasmid profile technique) could be used as a diversity index in ecological studies. In this investigation, the diversity of 196 isolates of sinorhizobium sp isolated from Hamada soils was evaluated by using Plasmid profile technique. The results showed that the number of plasmids among all isolates varied from 1 to 4 and totally 13 different plasmids were identified. The size of plasmids varied from 50 to 200 kb. Isolates with 1, 2, 3 and 4 plasmids formed 63, 21, 13 and 2 percentage of the population. Isolates of sinorhizobium with 2 and 3 plasmids were clustered into 8 and 15 groups, respectively, based on plasmid patterns. Four isolates which contained 4 plasmids were grouped in four different clusters and finally all isolates of Sinorhizobium (196) were grouped in 28 different groups.