GENETIC DIVERSITY OF BRADYRHIZOBIUM-JAPONICUM FIELD POPULATION REVEALED BY RAPD FINGERPRINTING

RAPD fingerprinting was used for strain identification and the assessm ent of genetic diversity within a field population of Bradyrhizobium j aponicum. Total genomic DNAs from 13 field isolates and two inoculant strains were amplified using six different 10-mer primers. Different a nd informative band patterns were obtained for all strains analysed. C luster analysis unexpectedly revealed that none of the field isolates was identical to inoculant strains which were regularly used for soybe an inoculation. Among field isolates two highly divergent groups were determined. The results indicate that RAPD is a very discriminative an d efficient method for differentiating and studying genetic diversity of B. japonicum strains.