Plasmid profiles and restriction fragment length polymorphism of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae in field populations

56 isolates of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae from one field were characterized by analysis of plasmid profile, total DNA restriction pattern and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of 2 chromosomal regions and of symbiotic (Sym) plasmid. Different levels of similarity exist in patterns generated by the different techniques. At the level of partial similarity these techniques give comparable results for more than 80% of the isolates, with the exception of RFLP profiling with the Sym probe. Analysis at this level allows the grouping of the isolates that have most of their non-Sym genome similarly organized.