PLASMID PROFILING AND RAPD MARKER ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI GROWTH PROMOTING BACTERIA

Abstract

Nineteen chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and eleven green pea (Pisum sativum L.) root nodule rhizobia collected from different localities of Pakistan were characterized for plasmid profiles and genomic diversity. Plasmid profile analysis and RAPD finger printing revealed genetic diversity among studied chickpea and green pea rhizobia. Cluster analysis of plasmid categorized chickpea in four groups and green pea into five groups at the distance of 0.3 and 1.5 respectively. Plasmid numbers varied from 1 to 3, while size of plasmid varied from 2.3kb to 33kb for chickpea isolates. Plasmid number for green pea rhizobia varied from 1 to 2 and size from 9.4kb to 33kb. Soil isolates nodulating both crops showed more variations for plasmid size than plasmid number. Chickpea rhizobia were less diverse for plasmid number and size than green pea rhizobia. Cluster analysis of RAPD banding patterns revealed three clusters for chickpea and six clusters for green pea. Therefore RAPD analysis is an efficient discriminatory method for genetic diversity estimation of Rhizobium strains.