Figure 1.

Phylogenetic consensus tree showing the position of E. meliloti AK58 and BO21CC strains in the Ensifer/Sinorhizobium genus. The phylogenetic tree was inferred by using the Maximum Likelihood method based on the Tamura 3-parameter model [17], chosen as model with the lowest BIC scores (Bayesian Information Criterion) after running a Maximum Likelihood fits of 24 different nucleotide substitution models (Model Test). The bootstrap consensus tree inferred from 500 replicates [18] is taken to represent the phylogenetic pattern of the taxa analyzed [18]. Branches corresponding to partitions reproduced in less than 50% bootstrap replicates are collapsed. The percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (500 replicates) are shown next to the branches. The tree with the highest log likelihood (-3411.7124) is shown. The percentage of trees in which the associated taxa clustered together is shown next to the branches. A discrete Gamma distribution was used to model evolutionary rate differences among sites (G, parameter = 0.3439). A total of 1,284 nt positions were present in the final dataset. Model test and Maximum Likelihood inference were conducted in MEGA5 [19]. In bold E. meliloti AK58 and BO21CC strains.