Invalidity of the concept of slow growth and alkali production in cowpea rhizobia.

A total of 103 rhizobial strains representing the cowpea miscellany and Rhizobium japonicum were studied with regard to growth rate, glucose metabolic pathways, and pH change in culture medium. Doubling times ranged from 1.4 +/- 0.04 to 44.1 +/- 5.2 h; although two populations of "fast-growing" and "slow-growing" rhizobia were noted, they overlapped and were not distinctly separated. Twenty-four strains which had doubling times of less than 8 h all showed NADP-linked 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6-PGD) activity, whereas only one slow-growing strain (doubling time, 10.8 +/- 0.9 h) of all those tested showed 6-PGD activity. Doubling times among fast growers could not be explained solely by the presence or absence of 6-PGD activity (r = 0.14) because the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the Emden-Meyerhoff-Parnas pathway were operative in both 6-PGD-positive and 6-PGD-negative strains. Growth rate and pH change were unrelated to each other. Fast- or slow-growing strains were not associated with any particular legume species or group of species from which they were originally isolated, with the exception of Stylosanthes spp., all nine isolates of which were slow growers. We conclude that 6-PGD activity is a more distinctive characteristic among physiologically different groups of rhizobia than doubling times and that characterization of the cowpea rhizobia as slow-growing alkali producers is an invalid concept.