Studies on strain specificity of Frankia in Alnus nepalensis

Abstract

To identify an effective and compatible Frankia strain for Alnus nepalensis, experiments were carried out with four different strains. Alnus was infected by all the four Frankia strains as was evidenced by the higher growth parameters over the uninoculated control. The strain AVC - II performed better in terms of infectivity and productivity of Alnus when compared with other strains tested. The study clearly indicated the possibility of exploiting the host - endophyte specificity in Alnus for higher productivity through effective symbiosis.