Rhizosphere-bacterial community in Eperua falcata (Caesalpiniaceae) a putative nitrogen-fixing tree from French Guiana rainforest.

The rainforest of French Guiana is still largely unaffected by human activity. Various pristine sites like the Paracou Research Station are devoted to study this tropical ecosystem. We used culture-independent techniques, like polymerase chain reaction-temperature gradient gel electrophoresis, and construction of clone libraries of partial 16S rRNA and nifH genes, to analyze the composition of the bacterial community in the rhizosphere of mature trees of Eperua falcata and Dicorynia guianensis, both species within the Caesalpiniaceae family. E. falcata is one of the more abundant pioneer tree species in this ecosystem and so far, no root nodules have ever been found. However, its nitrogen-fixing status is regarded as "uncertain", whereas D. guianensis is clearly considered a non-nitrogen-fixing plant. The rhizospheres of these mature trees contain specific bacterial communities, including several currently found uncultured microorganisms. In these communities, there are putative nitrogen-fixing bacteria specifically associated to each tree: D. guianensis harbors several Rhizobium spp. and E. falcata members of the genera Burkholderia and Bradyrhizobium. In addition, nifH sequences in the rhizosphere of the latter tree were very diverse. Retrieved sequences were related to bacteria belonging to the alpha-, beta-, and gamma-Proteobacteria in the E. falcata rhizoplane, whereas only two sequences related to gamma-Proteobacteria were found in D. guianensis. Differences in the bacterial communities and the abundance and diversity of nifH sequences in E. falcata rhizosphere suggest that this tree could obtain nitrogen through a nonnodulating bacterial interaction.