Molecular Characterization of Rhizobium Strains Isolated from Wild Chickpeas Collected from High Altitudes in Erzurum-Turkey

The fixation of N-2 by legumes plays key role in agricultural sustainability. Moreover, the further assessment of rhizobial genetic diversity is contributing both to the worldwide knowledge of biodiversity of soil microorganisms and to the usefulness of rhizobial collections, and it is developing long-term strategies to increase contributions of legume-fixed to agricultural productivity. In the last decades, the use of molecular techniques has been contributed greatly to enhance the knowledge of rhizobial diversity. This study was conducted to determine the phenotypic and genotypic differences in Rhizobium leguminosarum subsp. ciceri strains isolated from perennial wild chickpeas (Cicer anatolicum) from high altitudes (2000-2500 m) in mountains of Erzurum, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. In this study, rep-PCR (ERIC-, REP- and BOX-PCR) fingerprinting methods were used for the genotypic characterization and phylogenetic analysis of Rhizobium leguminosarum subsp. ciceri strains isolated from perennial wild chickpeas. The results showed a high intraspecies diversity among the strains in terms of rep-PCR (ERIC-, REP- and BOX-PCR) profiles.