Out of 70 bacterial strains isolated from root nodules of Lupinus albus and L. angustifolius grown in the soils from the Maamora forest in Morocco, 56 isolates possessed the nodC symbiotic gene, as determined by nodC-PCR, and they were able to renodulate their original hosts.

The phenotypic analysis showed that many strains had great potential for using different carbon compounds and amino acids as sole carbon and nitrogen sources. The majority of strains grew in media with pH values between 6 and 8. Only one strain isolated from L. angustifolius was able to grow at low pH values, whereas fourteen strains nodulating L. albus grew at pH 5. No strain developed at 40 °C, and eighteen strains grew at NaCl concentrations as high as 855 mM. A total of 17 strains solubilized phosphates, whereas 20 produced siderophores and seven produced IAA. Only three strains, Lalb41, Lang10 and Lang16, possessed all three plant growth promoting activities. The strains were grouped into eight genetic groups by rep-PCR. Analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences of eight strains representing the different groups showed that they were members of the genus Bradyrhizobium. The sequencing of the five housekeeping genes atpD, glnII, dnaK, gyrB and recA, from the eight representative strains, and the phylogenetic analysis of their concatenated sequences, showed that both plants were nodulated by different Bradyrhizobium species. Accordingly, two strains, Lalb41 and Lalb5.2, belonged to B. lupini, whereas two strains, Lalb2 and Lang17.2, were affiliated to B. cytisi, and one strain, Lang2, was close to B. canariense. The fourth group of strains, Lalb25, Lang14.3 and Lang8.3, which had similarity values of less than 96% with their closest named species, B. cytisi, may belong to two new genospecies in the genus Bradyrhizobium. All the strains nodulated Lupinus cosentinii, L. luteus, Retama sphaerocarpa, R. monosperma, Chamaecytisus albus, but not Vachellia gummifera, Phaseolus vulgaris or Glycine max. The nodA, nodC and nifH sequence analyses and their phylogeny confirmed that the strains isolated from the two lupines were members of the symbiovar genistearum.