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Use of Streptomycin for Suppressing Blue-Green Algal Nitrogenase Activity During the Assessment of Nitrogenase Activity in the Rice Rhizosphere¹

ABSTRACT

The addition of streptomycin at concentrations as low as 5 µg/ml to cell suspensions of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) or to blooms developing in a flooded soil caused greater than a 99% reduction in the nitrogenase activity of the cells in 24 to 72 hours. The antibiotic was not toxic to rice (Oryza sativa L.) at 250 µg/ml, and the nitrogenase activity of heterotrophs developing in puddled soils previously planted to rice was not significantly affected by concentrations as high as 50 µg/ml. The nitrogenase activity of heterotrophs developing in flooded or puddled soils not previously planted to rice was sensitive to concentrations of the antibiotic exceeding 10 µg/ml. In experiments involving the assessment of nitrogenase activity in the rice rhizosphere, streptomycin at concentrations as low as 2.5 to 5.0 µg/ml effectively curtailed the interference from blue-green algal activity.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Agronomy, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY 14853. The research was supported in part by a grant from the UN Development Program.

² Postdoctoral Associate and Professor, Dep. of Agronomy. Present address of senior author: Dep. of Agron., Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822.

Received for publication December 7, 1979. Accepted for publication March 23, 1980.