Isolation and characterization of Rhizobium sp. from a collar rot tolerant groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) variety

Groundnut, a major pulse crop, is prone to fungal diseases especially collar rot at seed germination and early seedling stage. In the present study, symbiotic bacteria was isolated and characterised from a collar rot resistant groundnut variety, Mallika and identified as Rhizobium pongamiae following biochemical and molecular characterization (NCBI Acc. No. MK770416). The bacterial isolate on cross inoculation, may be useful in improving crop productivity and enhancing collar rot disease tolerance in susceptible crops