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Early assessment of genotypic variation in growth and nitrogen fixation in Faidherbia albida/rhizobium symbiosis
Abstract
To enhance the benefits from N2-fixing symbiosis in low nitrogen fixers such as Faidherbia albida, knowledge is needed on how genotypes of both the host and its bacterial partner interact to influence N fixation-related traits of the host legume. A greenhouse experiment was carried out to investigate the variability of several traits with respect to provenance, rhizobial strain and their interactions. Four West African provenances of F. albida were inoculated with five proven effective strains and grown for two months. Provenance x strain interactions were significant only for shoot N concentration (%N) and total shoot N uptake but their contributions to total phenotypic variances were rather low (6-10%). Because of large differences
among provenances in growth performance the host genotype showed the greatest contribution (70.7%) to the variability in total shoot N uptake. Variability in %N in turn was mostly related to strain effectiveness (71.2%).
These results suggest that under conditions of N deficiency, growth performance and shoot N concentration provide reliable selection criteria when screening for improved N2-fixation in F. albida.
Keywords: rhizobia, Faidherbia, provenance, variability, interaction, N2-fixation
