Phylogeny of the phototrophic rhizobium strain BTAi1 by polymerase chain reaction-based sequencing of a 16S rRNA gene segment.

A 260-bp segment of the DNA that encodes 16S rRNA, corresponding to positions 44 to 337 in the Escherichia coli sequence, was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction and sequenced from each of 13 bacteria (rhizobia and purple phototrophs) in the alpha subdivision of the class Proteobacteria. The phylogenetic tree calculated from differences in the sequenced segment conforms well to our expectations based on other previously published data. The sequence from BTAi1 (a recently described phototrophic symbiont of the legume Aeschynomene) and that from the free-living phototroph Rhodopseudomonas palustris both fall within the range of variation found among strains of the soybean symbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum. This suggests that it would be appropriate to include all of these organisms in a single genus.