Correlation among azide resistance, rate of respiration, cytochrome c-oxidase activity, ATP concentration and symbiotic effective in Mesorrhizobium ciceri

Twenty-five fast and slow growing strains of Mesorhizobium ciceriwere tested for sodium azide resistance. Resistance to azide among these strains varied from 5 – 50 μg mL⁻¹. The levels of azide resistance were higher in fast growing strains than in slow growing strains. Fast growing strains resistant to 40 – 50 μg azide mL⁻¹ and slow growing strains resistant to 10 – 15 μg azide mL⁻¹ induced higher shoot dry weight and per cent shoot nitrogen in chickpea-plants. The cultured cells of these strains also had maximum rate of respiration (both on per cell and dry weight basis) and cytochrome c-oxidase activity than the strains resistant to other levels of azide. The ATP concentration in cell free extracts of all the strains was almost similar.