Plant responses to inoculation of Glycine max cv. Williams and Vigna unguiculata cv. Bisbee Red with Sinorhizobium fredii HH103 RifR and its greA or lps derivativesa.

aData represent averages of 8 soybean or 10 cowpea plants. Inoculated soybean and cowpea plants were grown for 55 and 43 days, respectively. Plants were grown in Leonard jars, each containing two soybean or cowpea plants. Soybean plants inoculated with lps and greA mutants also formed a high number of pseudonodules. Bacteria isolated from soybean and cowpea nodules of normal external morphology induced by each inoculant showed the resistance markers associated to the mutation (SpcR or GmR) or to the cosmid (TcR). In SVQ655 (pMUS908), however, only 50% of nodule isolates were TcR. Attempts to isolate bacteria from pseudonodules were unsuccessful.bEach mutant was pairwise compared with the parental strain HH103 RifR by using the Mann-Whitney non-parametrical test. Numbers on the same column followed by a single or a double asterisk are significantly different from those of HH103 RifR at the levels α = 5 and 1%, respectively.