Identification of rhizobial strains at the single nodule level using plasmid barcodes (Plasmid-ID). Optimizing Rhizobium-legume symbioses by simultaneous measurement of rhizobial competitiveness and N2 fixation in nodules

Rhizobial nodulation competitiveness and effectiveness at N2 fixation are independent traits, making their measurement extremely time-consuming with low experimental throughput. To transform the experimental assessment of rhizobial competitiveness and effectiveness, we have used synthetic biology to develop reporter plasmids that allow simultaneous high-throughput measurement of N2 fixation in individual nodules using GFP and barcode strain identification (Plasmid-ID) through next generation sequencing.