High Diversity of Bradyrhizobial Species Fix Nitrogen with Woody Legume in a High Mountain Ecosystem

The symbiosis between rhizobia and legumes is of pivotal importance in nitrogen-poor ecosystems. Furthermore, as it is a specific process (most legumes only establish a symbiosis with certain rhizobia), it is of great interest to know which rhizobia are able to nodulate key legumes in a specific habitat. This study describes the diversity of the rhizobia that are able to nodulate the shrub legume in the harsh environmental conditions of the high mountain ecosystem of Teide National Park (Tenerife). The diversity of microsymbionts nodulating was estimated from a phylogenetic analysis of root nodule bacteria isolated from soils at three selected locations in the park. The results showed that a high diversity of species of and two symbiovars can nodulate this legume. Phylogenies of ribosomal and housekeeping genes showed these strains distributed into three main clusters and a few isolates on separate branches. These clusters consist of strains representing three new phylogenetic lineages of the genus . Two of these lineages belong to the superclade, which we refer to as -like and -like, as the type strains of these species are the closest species to our isolates. The third main group was clustered within the superclade and is referred to as -like as is its closest species. This is the first time that bradyrhizobia of the superclade have been reported for the canarian genista. Furthermore, our results suggest that these three main groups might belong to potential new species of the genus . Analysis of the soil physicochemical properties of the three study sites showed some significant differences in several parameters, which, however, did not have a major influence on the distribution of bradyrhizobial genotypes at the different locations. The -like group had a more restrictive distribution pattern, while the other two lineages were detected in all of the soils. This suggests that the microsymbionts are well adapted to the harsh environmental conditions of Teide National Park.