Allorhizobium undicola gen. nov., sp. nov., nitrogen-fixing bacteria that efficiently nodulate Neptunia natans in Senegal

A group of nodule isolates from Neptunia natans, an indigenous stem- nodulated tropical legume found in waterlogged areas of Senegal, was studied. Polyphasic taxonomy was performed, including SDS-PAGE of total proteins, auxanography using API galleries, host-plant specificity, PCR-RFLP of the internal transcribed spacer region between the 16S and the 23S rRNA coding genes, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and DNA-DNA hybridization. It was demonstrated that this group is phenotypically and phylogenetically separate from the known species of Rhizobium, Sinorhizobium, Mesorhizobium, Agrobacterium, Bradyrhizobium and Azorhizobium. Its closest phylogenetic neighbour, as deduced by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, is Agrobacterium vitis (96.2 % sequence homology). The name Allorhizobium undicola gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed for this group of bacteria, which are capable of efficient nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with Neptunia natans, and the type strain is ORS 992(T) (= LMG 11875(T)).