Conservation of DNA regions adjacent to nifKDH homologous sequences in diverse slow-growing Rhizobium strains.

Restriction endonuclease-digested deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from 17 slow-growing Rhizobium strains was hybridized with 32P-labeled DNA of the Klebsiella pneumoniae nitrogenase structural gene (nifKDH) region. Sixteen of these strains contained two or more fragments that were homologous to K. pneumoniae nifKDH after cleavage with EcoRI or HindIII. Hybridization with nifKDH subclones revealed that most of the Rhizobium fragments were homologous to the HindIII-EcoRI portion of nifKDH (corresponding to the nifDH region), although fragments homologous to the EcoRI-HindIII portion of nifKDH (corresponding to the nifK region) were also present. Comigrating nif-homologous restriction endonuclease fragments were observed for strains isolated from different geographic locations and from nodules of different plant species. Nearly identical hybridization patterns were obtained for five R. japonicum strains which clearly differed in the pattern of restriction endonuclease fragments from their chromosomal DNA. This indicates that there is a high degree of conservation of DNA sequence surrounding the region of nif homology in these strains.