Table 2.

Nitrogen-fixing ability of marked rhizobial strains.

Treatment	Total dry weight (mg)	Nodule biomass (mg)	Nodule number
Uninoculated	0.06 ± 0.04 a	0.00 ± 0.00 a	0.0 ± 0.0 a
Inoculated	0.72 ± 0.01 b	33.33 ± 0.07 b	19.6 ± 0.1 b
t(1,83)	2.58 **	2.60 **	3.49 **
PPRICI3 Parent	0.87 ± 0.13	18.60 ± 0.64	14.8 ± 0.5
PPRICI3Mkd1	0.70 ± 0.14	23.60 ± 0.78	13.2 ± 0.7
PPRICI3Mkd2	0.68 ± 0.10	15.40 ± 0.48	11.2 ± 0.5
PPRICI3Mkd3	1.26 ± 0.13	18.00 ± 0.62	12.6 ± 0.5
F(3,16)	2.06 ns	0.51 ns	0.17 ns
UCT40a Parent	2.26 ± 0.19 a	75.76 ± 1.36 a	20.0 ± 0.7 a
UCT40aMkd1	1.83 ± 0.23 a	74.70 ± 1.38 a	24.3 ± 0.7 a
UCT40aMkd2	2.13 ± 0.20 a	81.94 ± 1.20 a	31.6 ± 0.7 a
UCT40aMkd3	0.12 ± 0.06 b	0.00 ± 0.00 b	0.0 ± 0.0 b
F(3,16)	4.35 *	10.30 **	8.13 **
UCT44b Parent	0.37 ± 0.13	31.25 ± 0.43	18.0 ± 0.4
UCT44bMkd1	0.90 ± 0.12	56.00 ± 0.81	33.4 ± 0.8
UCT44bMkd2	0.51 ± 0.09	23.20 ± 0.47	18.4 ± 0.5
UCT44bMkd3	0.66 ± 0.12	25.60 ± 0.60	18.2 ± 0.6
F(3,16)	1.61 ns	2.22 ns	2.94 ns
UCT61a Parent	0.84 ± 0.12	39.82 ± 0.93	25.4 ± 0.7
UCT61aMkd1	0.54 ± 0.09	22.64 ± 0.44	16.0 ± 0.5
UCT61aMkd2	0.61 ± 0.10	34.02 ± 0.73	21.6 ± 0.5
UCT61aMkd3	1.07 ± 0.14	48.10 ± 1.04	32.0 ± 0.8
F(3,16)	2.79 ns	1.63 ns	1.79 ns

Values are mean ± SE (n = 5) and different letters within a column indicate significant differences. ** Denotes a significant effect at P < 0.01, * = P < 0.05 and ns = no significant effect.