Full Length Research Paper

Characterization of Rhizobium strain isolated from the roots of Trigonella foenumgraecum (fenugreek)

Baljinder Singh¹, Ravneet Kaur² and Kashmir Singh³*

¹Department of Biotechnology, Shaeed Udham Singh College of Engineering and Technology Tangori, Punjab, India.

²Department of Biotechnology, Government College, SAS Nagar, Mohali, Punjab, India.

³Department of Biotechnology, Panjab University, Chandigarh160014, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: kashmir123@rediffmail.com. Tel: +91 172 2534076. Fax: +91 172 2541409.

Accepted 29 September, 2008

Trigonella foenumgraecum (fenugreek) is known for its dietary protein source, medicinal properties and symbiotic nitrogen fixation by Rhizobium present in its root nodules. The present study describes the characterization of a Rhizobium strain isolated from root nodules of fenugreek. The Rhizobium isolates were rod shaped, gram negative, acid and mucous producing.  They were found to be temperature and pH sensitive, with optimum values of 29.4 and 7.0°C, respectively. The bacteria was sensitive to the antibiotics; chloramphenicol, kanamycin and streptomycin. It utilizes glucose, sucrose and starch as sole carbon source. The Rhizobium species isolated from fenugreek roots have the potential to produce industrially important enzymes; amylase and cellulase. Immobilizing the organism in agar and agarose does not affect its activity; indeed increased biomass yield and enzyme production was observed. The Rhizobium can be easily immobilized onto carriers like charcoal powder which can be applied as biofertilizer.

Key words: Fenugreek, rhizobium isolation, biochemical analysis, immobilization, enzyme production.