Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Data and analysis scripts for: Prolonged soybean absence in the field selects for rhizobia that accumulate more polyhydroxybutyrate during symbiosis

Published by Agricultural Research Service | Department of Agriculture | Catalog Last Checked: June 12, 2026 at 11:18 PM | Dataset Last Updated: May 26, 2026
During symbiosis, C that rhizobia respire to power N fixation can be stored as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), shown to support rhizobia survival under laboratory starvation. We collected soil in 2015 from four replicate plots per treatment in two long-term experiments at Waseca, Minnesota. Treatments differed in the intervals between soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) hosts. We measured PHB accumulation in eight nodules per plant from four soybean (cv. ‘MN0095’) trap plants per soil sample. Trap plants were arranged in a greenhouse, common-garden experiment, and PHB accumulation was measured using flow cytometry. Treatments sampled after long intervals without soybean (greater than two years) showed a greater relative abundance of high-PHB strains. Treatments sampled after the first year of soybean following five years of a non-host crop showed a decreased relative abundance of high-PHB strains, compared to treatments sampled after long intervals without soybean. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis (not tested directly here) that some high-PHB strains were “sanctioned” by plants as less-beneficial. Our results suggest that rhizobia strains with the tendency to allocate more C to N fixation at the expense of PHB accumulation may be less likely to persist where soybean is grown infrequently or where soil conditions make PHB particularly valuable. However, with typical two-year rotations in Minnesota, differences in PHB storage are unlikely to have a major effect on the relative survival of strains.See README.md for a detailed description of data files and scripts.

Resources

25 resources available

Find Related Datasets

Search by Tags

Click any tag below to search for similar datasets

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel public
accrualPeriodicity irregular
bureauCode 
[
  "005:18"
]
contactPoint 
{
  "fn": "Muller, Katherine E.",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:katherine.muller2010@gmail.com"
}
description <p dir="ltr">During symbiosis, C that rhizobia respire to power N fixation can be stored as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), shown to support rhizobia survival under laboratory starvation. We collected soil in 2015 from four replicate plots per treatment in two long-term experiments at Waseca, Minnesota. Treatments differed in the intervals between soybean (<i>Glycine max</i> (L.) Merr.) hosts. We measured PHB accumulation in eight nodules per plant from four soybean (cv. ‘MN0095’) trap plants per soil sample. Trap plants were arranged in a greenhouse, common-garden experiment, and PHB accumulation was measured using flow cytometry. Treatments sampled after long intervals without soybean (greater than two years) showed a greater relative abundance of high-PHB strains. Treatments sampled after the first year of soybean following five years of a non-host crop showed a decreased relative abundance of high-PHB strains, compared to treatments sampled after long intervals without soybean. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis (not tested directly here) that some high-PHB strains were “sanctioned” by plants as less-beneficial. Our results suggest that rhizobia strains with the tendency to allocate more C to N fixation at the expense of PHB accumulation may be less likely to persist where soybean is grown infrequently or where soil conditions make PHB particularly valuable. However, with typical two-year rotations in Minnesota, differences in PHB storage are unlikely to have a major effect on the relative survival of strains.</p><p dir="ltr">See README.md for a detailed description of data files and scripts. </p>
distribution 
[
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "README.md",
    "format": "md",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406861"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "analysisOfPHBacrossRotationTreatments.html",
    "format": "html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406864"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "appendix_nodcount.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406867"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "appendix_chl.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406870"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "appendix_nodmass.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406873"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "appendix_plantMetricsByRotation.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406876"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "appendix_shootmass.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406879"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Figure1_distributionOfPHB.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406882"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Figure3_hostpresResults.tiff",
    "format": "tiff",
    "mediaType": "image/tiff",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406885"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "FigureS2_verifyingPHB.tiff",
    "format": "tiff",
    "mediaType": "image/tiff",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406888"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Figure2_hostabResults.tiff",
    "format": "tiff",
    "mediaType": "image/tiff",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406891"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "plantgrowthAndPHB_appendix.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406894"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "supplement_nodcountAndShootDWbygroupSROC.tiff",
    "format": "tiff",
    "mediaType": "image/tiff",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406897"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Supplement_ResultsForAllRotations.tiff",
    "format": "tiff",
    "mediaType": "image/tiff",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406900"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "analysisOfPHBacrossRotationTreatments.R",
    "format": "R",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406903"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Figure1_distributionOfPHB.R",
    "format": "R",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406906"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Figures2and3effectsOfHostAbsenceAndPresence.R",
    "format": "R",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406909"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "plantGrowthAndNodulation_Appendices.R",
    "format": "R",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406912"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "setUpDataAndContrasts.R",
    "format": "R",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406915"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "verifyingPHBWithSplitRootData.R",
    "format": "R",
    "mediaType": "text/plain",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406918"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "editedPHBData_WREsplitroot1.RDATA",
    "format": "RDATA",
    "mediaType": "application/gzip",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406921"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "isolateCodesForFreezerWRE.csv",
    "format": "csv",
    "mediaType": "application/csv",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406924"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "phbplusplantdata_forDRUM.RDATA",
    "format": "RDATA",
    "mediaType": "application/gzip",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406927"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "modelOutputForPlots.RData",
    "format": "RData",
    "mediaType": "application/gzip",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406930"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "brmsMods20220313.RData",
    "format": "RData",
    "mediaType": "application/gzip",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/45406933"
  }
]
identifier 10.15482/USDA.ADC/25521448.v1
keyword 
[
  "Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network",
  "Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)",
  "soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.)",
  "symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF)"
]
license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
modified 2026-05-26
programCode 
[
  "005:040"
]
publisher 
{
  "name": "Agricultural Research Service",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
spatial 
"{"type": "Point", "coordinates": [-93.528657, 44.069167]}"
temporal 1982-05-01/2016-05-01
title Data and analysis scripts for: Prolonged soybean absence in the field selects for rhizobia that accumulate more polyhydroxybutyrate during symbiosis

data.gov

An official website of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov