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Nodulation of Soybean Plant Introduction Lines with the Fast-Growing Rhizobial Strain USDA 205¹

The domesticated soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., had been thought until recently to nodulate only with rhizobia of the slow-growing species R. japonicum. However, in 1982, the soybean cultivar Peking was reported to nodulate effectively and fix N₂ with newly isolated fast-growing rhizobial species (as yet unnamed) from China. In the present study, 285 plant introductions of G. max, from nine Asian countries representing maturity groups 00 to x were tested for nodulation with the fast-growing Rhizobium sp. strain USDA 205. Five seeds of each soybean line were surface sterilized, planted in vermiculite in growth trays, and inoculated with a broth culture of strain USDA 205. After growth for 5 weeks in the greenhouse, plants were removed from the planting medium and the roots were evaluated visually for nodulation response. Fifty-six percent of the G. max introductions tested formed normal-appearing nodules (effective). Effectively nodulated lines occurred in all maturity groups. A higher frequency (more than 80%) of nodulation-compatible lines was found in the southeast Asian nations of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. G. max introductions nodulated by strain USDA 205 varied in apparent efficiency of fixation, as evidenced by relative differences in both plant growth and green color of foliage when grown in N-free media.

Key Words: Symbiosis • Nitrogen fixation • Genetic variability • Gene frequencies • Ecological genetics • Physiological genetics

² Research geneticist, Nitrogen Fixation and Soybean Genetics Lab., Beltsville Agric. Res. Ctr.-West, Beltsville, MD 20705.

Received for publication April 30, 1984.