Fatty acid profiling is a useful tool for the identification of members of the genus Rhizobium and related genera (Tighe
et al., 2000). In this study, strain J3-A127T and the four reference strains were grown on YMA medium for 2 days at 30 uC. Fatty acid methyl esters were prepared and separated according to method described by Sasser (1990)
and were identified with the MIDI Sherlock Microbial Identification System. Strain J3-A127T had a cellular fatty
acid profile that was similar to those of other reference strains of the genus Rhizobium (Table 2). The major fatty
acids of strain J3-A127T were C18 : 1v7c and/or C18 : 1v6c, which are typical components of root-nodule bacteria