Fig. 2

Comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of Ensifer meliloti Mlalz-1 (shown in bold) and other Ensifer spp. type strains, based on aligned 16S rRNA gene sequences of 1389 bp. Of the 1389 sites, 1279 were constant and 48 were informative. There were eight gaps overall when Mesorhizobium ciceri bv biserrulae WSM1271 was included in the analysis. Phylogenetic analysis was done using MEGA, version 6.0 [61] after manually assembling the alignment by using GeneDoc version 2.6.001 [62]. M. ciceri bv biserrulae WSM1271 was used as an outgroup and the tree was assembled using the UPGMA algorithm based on the number of nucleotide differences. This approach was used since the potential for genetic recombination among the different 16S rRNA genes as reported by van Berkum [63] cannot be ignored. Bootstrap analysis [64] with 2000 permutations of the data set was done to assess support for the branch points. Strains with a genome sequencing project registered in GOLD [24] are Ensifer adhaerens Casida A^T, M. ciceri bv. biserrulae WSM1271 and Mlalz-1 and the GOLD ID is provided in place of the GenBank accession number