The relationship between glucose consumption byRhizobium spp. from some common cultivated legumes and their efficiencies

Abstract

A study of glucose consumption and efficiency of forty strains each of (1) a Rhizobium sp. of the pea group,Rhizobium leguminosarum from pea (Pisum sativum var. Bonneville), (2) of one of the alfalfa groupRhizobium meliloti from fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum var. Pusa Early Bunching) and (3) and (4) ofRhizobium sp. of the cow pea group each from black gram (Phaseolus mungo var. N.P.4) and Egyptian bean (Dolichos lablab var. Pusa Green Bunch) showed that there was a good deal of variation between the amounts of glucose consumed by the strains from a single legume and that a positive correlation existed between the amount of glucose consumed by a strain from a legume and its efficiency. In the case of strains from fenugreek and black gram the rate of increase in efficiency per unit consumption of glucose was found to be about seven times that in the case of strains from bean and over three times that in the case of strains from pea. These factors were somewhat negatively correlated with the size of the seeds of the legumes, those of bean being the largest and of fenugreek the smallest.