Diversity and Phylogeny of Rhizobium galegae, and reflections on molecular evolution of rhizobium-legume symbiosis

List of original papers This thesis is based on the following articles, which in the text will be referred to by their Roman numerals. Additionally, some unpublished results are presented. fingerprinting as a tool to study the genetic diversity of Rhizobium galegae. diversity of rhizobia isolated from Astragalus adsurgens growing in different geographical regions of China. Molecular evolution of interactions between rhizobia and their legume hosts. genetic diversity of Rhizobium galegae isolates collected from the center of origin of Galega orientalis in the Caucasus. Manuscript v " The evolutionarily later always subsumes and includes the evolutionarily earlier " (Frederick Turner). Abbreviations AFLP Amplified fragment length polymorphism ARDRA Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis Ap-PCR Arbitrarily primed PCR bp Base pair bv Biovar DAF DNA amplification fingerprinting DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid EPS Exopolysaccharides HAMBI Culture collection of the division of microbiology hsn Host specific nodulation genes IGS Intergenic spacer ITS Internal transcribed spacer IS Insertion sequence LCO Lipo-chitin oligosaccharide LNP Lectin nucleotide phosphydrolase LPS Lipopolysaccharide LSU Large sub unit MgCl 2 Magnesium chloride MLEE Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis N 2 Nitrogen NFBS Nod factor binding site nod Nodulation pRg Plasmid from R. galegae PCR Polymerase chain reaction PFGE Pulsed field gel electrophoresis RAPD Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA rbcL Chloroplast gene RFLP Restriction fragment length polymorphism RNA Ribonucleicacid rRNA Ribosomal RNA REP Repetitive extragenic palindromic SSU Small sub unit Sym Symbiotic SymA Symbiotic plasmid A SymB Symbiotic plasmid B TTSS Type three secretion system 1