Phenotypic characterization of rhizobia from legumes and its application as a bioinoculant

Symbiosis between leguminous plants and soil bacteria, commonly referred to as rhizobia, is of considerable economic importance, in low input sustainable agriculture, agroforestry and land reclamation, besides being eco-friendly. In the era of development and commercialization of bioinoculant technology for sustainable agriculture development, rhizobial inoculants have been targetted as potential candidate. A Total ten nodulated plants in replica i.e. five of soybean and five of French beans were collected from organic farm of Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Number of nodules present in sample soybean A, B and C were more than French bean. Soyabean showed medium, prominent, white colonies of YEMA whereas French bean showed large white colonies. All isolated Rhizobium strains were found to be Gram negative and these were having granules within the cell. All strains of Rhizobium [SbR, ScR, FaR, FbR, FcR] had peritrichous flagellar arrangement while SaR strain of had sub polar flagella. All strains of Rhizobium gave positive congo red and negative test with alkaline broth and lactose agar test. When Rhizobium strain isolated from the soyabean was used as bioinoculant, it increased the growth of inoculated plant and the plant appeared much healthier in comparison to the control.