Both human bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) and a recombinant amino-terminal fragment of BPI (rBPI23) have been shown to bind with high affinity to the lipid A region of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (H. Gazzano-Santoro, J. B. Parent, L. Grinna, A. Horwitz, T. Parsons, G. Theofan, P. Elsbach, J. Weiss, and P. J. Conlon, Infect. Immun. 60:4754-4761, 1992). In the present study, lipi...

Gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric analyses of derivatized culture medium extracts were used to identify the products of flavonoid metabolism by rhizobia. A number of Rhizobium species and biovars degraded their nod gene-inducing flavonoids by mechanisms which originated in a cleavage of the C-ring of the molecule and which yielded conserved A- and B-ring products among the metabolites....

Rhizobium aethiopicum sp. nov. is a newly proposed species within the genus Rhizobium. This species includes six rhizobial strains; which were isolated from root nodules of the legume plant Phaseolus vulgaris growing in soils of Ethiopia. The species fixes nitrogen effectively in symbiosis with the host plant P. vulgaris, and is composed of aerobic, Gram-negative staining, rod-shaped bacteria. ...

Cowpea derives most of its N nutrition from biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) via symbiotic bacteroids in root nodules. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the diversity and biogeographic distribution of bacterial microsymbionts nodulating cowpea and other indigenous legumes are not well understood, though needed for increased legume production. The aim of this study was to describe the distribution and ph...

Glutamine synthetase exists in at least two related forms, GSI and GSII, the sequences of which have been used in evolutionary molecular clock studies. GSI has so far been found exclusively in bacteria, and GSII has been found predominantly in eukaryotes. To date, only a minority of bacteria, including rhizobia, have been shown to express both forms of GS. The sequences of equivalent internal f...

Bacteria from nodules of the legume Acaciella angustissima native to the south of Mexico were characterized genetically and their nodulation and competitiveness were evaluated. Phylogenetic studies derived from rpoB gene sequences indicated that A. angustissima is nodulated by Sinorhizobium mexicanum, Rhizobium tropici, Mesorhizobium plurifarium and Agrobacterium tumefaciens and by bacteria rel...

Introduction Species of the genus Rhizobium are opportunistic, usually saprophytic, glucose-non-fermenting, Gram-negative bacilli found in agricultural soil. Rhizobium pusense infections are the least common Rhizobium infections and have low incidence. Case presentation Herein, we report the first case of sepsis with R. pusense in Japan in a 67-year-old Japanese woman with a history of hyperl...

Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) Macmillan) has potential as a grain and forage legume for the American Midwest. Inoculant-quality rhizobia for this legume have been identified but not previously characterized. Rhizobia trapped from 20 soils in the natural range of the Illinois bundleflower had characteristics that placed them overwhelmingly within the species Rhizobium gi...