The Mesorhizobium huakuii transcriptional regulator AbiEi plays a critical role in nodulation and is important for bacterial stress response

Table 2 Symbiotic phenotype of 7653R and HKabiEi ^α,β

Strain M. huakuii	Plant fresh weight (mg of plant)	Number of total nodules per plant	Acetylene reduction activity (nmol of ethylene/plant/h)	Acetylene reduction activity (nmol of ethylene/nodule/h)
7653R	106.05 ± 8.59^a	17.50 ± 2.12^a	35.20 ± 3.68 ^a	2.01 ± 0.034 ^a
HKabiEi	63.58 ± 3.94^b	15.40 ± 4.39^a	0.90 ± 0.12 ^b	0.06 ± 0.07 ^b
HKabiEi(pBBRabiEi)	93.58 ± 0.83^a	7.00 ± 1.00^b	15.03 ± 0.42 ^c	2.17 ± 0.66 ^a
Control ^γ	54.84 ± .10^b	0	0	0

^α Data are the average of at least 5 replicates. Acetylene reduction activity of nodules induced by abiE mutant strain HKabiEi or complementary strain HKabiEi(pBBRabiEi) was compared to that of nodules induced by the wild-type strain 7653R
^{β a,b} Values in each column followed by the same letter are not significantly different (P ≤ 0.05)
^γ Control: plants not inoculated with rhizobial strain

ISSN: 1471-2180