Abstract
Rhizobia play important roles in agriculture owing to their ability to fix nitrogen through a symbiosis with legumes. The specificity of rhizobia-legume associations means that underused legume species may depend on seed inoculation with their rhizobial partners. For black medic (Medicago lupulina) and lucerne (Medicago sativa) little is known about the natural prevalence of their rhizobial partner Ensifer meliloti in UK soils, so that the need for inoculating them is unclear. We analysed the site-dependence of rhizobial seed inoculation effects on the subsequent ability of rhizobial communities to form symbioses with four legume species (Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratense). At ten organic farms across the UK, a species-diverse legume based mixture (LBM) which included these four species was grown. The LBM seed was inoculated with a mix of commercial inocula specific for clover and lucerne. At each site, soil from the LBM treatment was compared to the soil sampled prior to the sowing of the LBM (the control). From each site and each of the two treatments, a suspension of soils was applied to seedlings of the four legume species and grown in axenic conditions for six weeks. Root nodules were counted and their rhizobia isolated. PCR and sequencing of a fragment of the gyrB gene from rhizobial isolates allowed identification of strains. The number of nodules on each of the four legume species was significantly increased when inoculated with soil from the LBM treatment compared to the control. Both the proportion of plants forming nodules and the number of nodules formed varied significantly by site, with sites significantly affecting the Medicago species but not the Trifolium species. These differences in nodulation were broadly reflected in plant biomass where site and treatment interacted; at some sites there was a significant advantage from inoculation with the commercial inoculum but not at others. In particular, this study has demonstrated the commercial merit of inoculation of lucerne with compatible rhizobia.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
The number of nodules on each of the four legume species was significantly higher with soil from the inoculated legume mixture treatment than with pre-sowing control soil.
- Taxon
- Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratense
Medicago sativa
Trifolium repens
Medicago lupulina
Trifolium pratensee0 - Treatment
- inoculated with soil from the LBM treatmente2
- Interactor
- Rhizobiae1symbiont
- Outcome
- number of nodulese2
- Direction
- increasede2
- Comparator
- the controle2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“(Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratense)”
e1“Rhizobia play important roles in agriculture”
e2“The number of nodules on each of the four legume species was significantly increased when inoculated with soil from the LBM treatment compared to the control”
Claim · model-written summary
The proportion of plants forming nodules and the number of nodules formed varied significantly by site.
- Taxon
- Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratenseMedicago sativaTrifolium repensMedicago lupulinaTrifolium pratensee0
- Outcome
- proportion of plants forming nodules and the number of nodules formede1
- Setting
- sitee1
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“(Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratense)”
e1“Both the proportion of plants forming nodules and the number of nodules formed varied significantly by site”
Claim · model-written summary
Site significantly affected nodulation of the Medicago species.
MedicagoNot reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Both the proportion of plants forming nodules and the number of nodules formed varied significantly by site, with sites significantly affecting the Medicago species”
Claim · model-written summary
Site did not significantly affect nodulation of the Trifolium species.
TrifoliumNot reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Both the proportion of plants forming nodules and the number of nodules formed varied significantly by site, with sites significantly affecting the Medicago species but not the Trifolium species”
Claim · model-written summary
Nodulation differences were broadly reflected in plant biomass, with site and treatment interacting: at some sites inoculation with the commercial inoculum gave a significant advantage but not at others.
- Taxon
- Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratenseMedicago sativaTrifolium repensMedicago lupulinaTrifolium pratensee0
- Treatment
- inoculation with the commercial inoculume2
- Outcome
- plant biomasse1
- Direction
- advantagee2
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“(Medicago lupulina, M. sativa, Trifolium repens and T. pratense)”
e1“These differences in nodulation were broadly reflected in plant biomass”
e2“at some sites there was a significant advantage from inoculation with the commercial inoculum but not at others”
Claim · model-written summary
The study demonstrated the commercial merit of inoculating lucerne with compatible rhizobia.
- Taxon
- lucerneMedicago sativae1
- Treatment
- inoculation of lucerne with compatible rhizobiae1
- Outcome
- commercial merit of inoculatione1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“this study has demonstrated the commercial merit of inoculation of lucerne with compatible rhizobia”
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See all 57 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.