Bldg. 006, Room 3, BARC-West 10300 Baltimore Ave. Beltsville, MD 20705, USA Tel. (301) 504-7280

Welcome To The USDA ARS National RHIZOBIUM Germplasm Collection

Our mission is to support application of low-input sustainable agriculture by:

1. Providing, to the best of our ability, technical information about rhizobia, their preservation, and cultural and symbiotic characteristics.
2. Acquiring and preserving the nitrogen-fixing bacterial symbionts of leguminous plants with the goal of maintaining widest possible genetic diversity.
3. Maintaining quality control of new and existing germplasm by evaluation of microbiological purity and by examination of nodulation of the original trap host plant.
4. Distributing cultures to the public and private sectors without charge for these services.
5. Developing or adapting techniques in molecular biology for the determination of genetic diversity of rhizobia, to investigate interactions with their host plants and to identify novel characteristics.
6. Acquiring, maintaining, evaluating quality, and distributing type strains for all the different taxa of nitrogen-fixing legume symbionts.
7. Participating in the UNESCO program.