Survival and Symbiotic Effectivity of Lyophilized Root Nodule Bacteria

The study has been carried out under the greenhouse and laboratory conditions, using the lyophilization technique to determine the preserving possibilities of 3 native strain isolated from bean root nodules that been widely cultivated in Turkey and was defined as Rhizobium bacteria. The strains been developed separately in the Petri dishes with YMA (Yeast Extract Mannitol Agar) sown into lyophilization tubes containing skim milk, frozen at -85 °C and dehydrated at -55 °C with vacuum. According to the cultural counting results continued for 35 months after lyophilization, while the living cells in R11 strains and R12 strains found as 41x109 and 35.5x109 cell mL-1, respectively, the best result was determined in the R13 strain as 51.5x109 cell mL-1. In the greenhouse trials, the dry weight of plant`s green parts, the number of nodules and total nitrogen amounts were evaluated. The tested strains were inoculated with bean varieties peculiar to themselves and the lyophilizated cultures gave similar results with the main cultures kept in tubes with YMA.