Genomic diversity of Astragalus cicer microsymbionts revealed by AFLP fingerprinting

DNA polymorphism among 36 Astragalus cicer nodule isolates and 9 reference mesorhizobia was evaluated by a simplified PstI based AFLP procedure with three selective primers: Pst-A, Pst-G, and Pst-GC. The DNA profiles were found to be highly specific for nearly each strain, although DNA bands characteristic for most A. cicer microsymbionts were also noted. The overall topologies of dendrograms, generated by AFLP patterns in PCR reaction with three primers, were very similar to one another and to that constructed by phenotyping. Also the strain compositions in the particular clusters on pheno- and genomograms were in good agreement. The obtained results indicate that AFLP technique can be a useful tool for typing of A. cicer rhizobia as well as for studying their diversity.