What is Frankia in microbiology?
Frankia is a genus of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in symbiosis with actinorhizal plants, similar to the Rhizobium bacteria found in the root nodules of legumes in the family Fabaceae. Frankia also initiate the forming of root nodules.
What is special about Frankia?
Frankia supplies most or all of the host plant nitrogen needs without added nitrogen and thus can establish a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with host plants where nitrogen is the limiting factor in the growth of the host. Therefore, actinorhizal plants colonize and often prosper in soils that are low in combined nitrogen.
Is Frankia rod shaped?
Root nodule bacteria include Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium, Azorhizobium, and Frankia. Bacteria vary in size and shape with age, with typical bacteria being rod-shaped (1.2–3.0 by 0.5–0.9 millimeter) or irregular, club-shaped forms. They have no flagella, and most are gram negative.
Where is Frankia found?
Introduction. Frankia are filamentous nitrogen-fixing Gram-positive actinobacteria that are found as free-living microbes in the soil and in symbiotic associations with actinorhizal plants [1-5].
Is Frankia a bacterial group?
Yes. Frankia is a symbiotic bacterium. Rhizobium. The Frankia bacteria is associated symbiotically with the root nodules of several nonlegume plants.
Is Frankia aerobic or anaerobic?
Frankia strains are Gram+, aerobic, heterotrophic and filamentous bacteria found in association with plant root nodules or free-living in soil.
Which plant has association with Frankia?
actinorhizal plants
The actinorhizal symbioses are mutualistic relationships between the actinomycete genus Frankia and a number of dicotyledonous plant genera belonging to eight diverse plant families. Root nodules of actinorhizal plants induced by Frankia are morphologically distinct from legume nodules which are formed by rhizobia.
Is Frankia filamentous?
Frankia bacteria are gram positive and filamentous and they produce spores. Root nodule bacteria survive in roots of susceptible legumes and, for varying periods of time, in the soil. Continued growth of the same legume in the soil tends to build up the population of nodule bacteria affecting that legume.
Where does bacterium frankia ALNI live?
Frankia alni is a Gram-positive species of actinomycete filamentous bacterium that lives in symbiosis with actinorhizal plants in the genus Alnus. It is a nitrogen-fixing bacterium and forms nodules on the roots of alder trees.
What is the difference between Rhizobium and Frankia?
Frankia is a genus of soil actinomycetes in the family Frankiaceae that fix nitrogen, both under symbiotic and free-living aerobic conditions, while most rhizobia do not (Benson and Silvester, 1993).
Is Frankia autotrophic or heterotrophic?
heterotrophic
Frankia is heterotrophic as it do not contain chlorophyll so cannot synthesize its own food.
What is common in Frankia and Rhizobium?
(a) Are free- living in soil, but as a symbiont for atmospheric nitrogen fixation. (b) Produce nodules on the roots of leguminous plants.