根瘤菌是在豆科植物中形成固氮根瘤的细菌。负责结瘤和固氮的基因集在通常可移动的质粒或基因组岛中携带。一个物种内的不同菌株有时具有不同的宿主特异性,虽然在不同物种的菌株中可能发现非常相似的共生基因。这些特异性变体被称为共生体,他们中的许多人都有名字,但是没有既定的准则来定义或命名它们。这里,我们讨论了描述共生体的指南的要求,提出一套指导方针,提供到目前为止已发布描述的所有共生体的列表,并提供一种机制来维护未来的列表。
Rhizobia are bacteria that form nitrogen-fixing nodules in legume plants. The sets of genes responsible for both nodulation and nitrogen fixation are carried in plasmids or genomic islands that are often mobile. Different strains within a species sometimes have different host specificities, while very similar symbiosis genes may be found in strains of different species. These specificity variants are known as symbiovars, and many of them have been given names, but there are no established
guidelines for defining or naming them. Here, we discuss the requirements for
guidelines to describe symbiovars, propose a set of
guidelines, provide a list of all symbiovars for which descriptions have been published so far, and offer a mechanism to maintain a list in the future.