HOW TO MONITOR RELEASED RHIZOBIA

Existing methods for detection and identification of rhizobia are revi ewed. Some perspectives for development of new and more effective tech niques for monitoring of rhizobia in soil and in inoculants are presen ted. The advantages of the recently developed approach - PCR-genome fi ngerprinting, by use of arbitrary and repetitive primers, for precise bacterial identification are described. The possible application of th is technique for developing taxon-specific rhizobial probes for direct detection of these bacteria in environmental samples is discussed.