Genomic characterization of Sinorhizobium meliloti AK21, a wild isolate from the Aral Sea Region

The symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti has been widely studied due to its ability to improve crop yields through direct interactions with leguminous plants. S. meliloti AK21 is a wild type strain that forms nodules on Medicago plants in saline and drought conditions in the Aral Sea Region. The aim of this work was to establish the genetic similarities and differences between S. meliloti AK21 and the reference strain S. meliloti 1021. Comparative genome hybridization with the model reference strain S. meliloti 1021 yielded 365 variable genes, grouped into 11 regions in the three main replicons in S. meliloti AK21. The most extensive regions of variability were found in the symbiotic plasmid pSymA, which also contained the largest number of orthologous and polymorphic sequences identified by suppression subtractive hybridization. This procedure identified a large number of divergent sequences and others without homology in the databases, the further investigation of which could provide new insight into the alternative metabolic pathways present in S. meliloti AK21. We identified a plasmid replication module from the repABC replicon family, together with plasmid mobilization-related genes (traG and a VirB9-like protein), which suggest that this indigenous isolate harbors an accessory plasmid. Furthermore, the transcriptomic profiles reflected differences in gene content and regulation between S. meliloti AK21 and S. meliloti 1021 (ExpR and PhoB regulons), but provided evidence for an as yet unknown, alternative mechanism involving activation of the cbb3 terminal oxidase. Finally, phenotypic microarrays characterization revealed a greater versatility of substrate use and chemical degradation than for S. meliloti 1021.