An experiment was carried out at the Soil Science Department of Federal University of Lavras (MG), from November/1999 to January/2000, aiming to evaluate the survival of strain and isolates of rhizobia, in heavy metal contaminated soil.The possible relationship between rhizobia tolerance in culture medium and its survival in contaminated soil was also verified.From a group of 60strains/isolates tested at a previous study for metal tolerance in YMA medium, two out of the most tolerant microorganisms [BR-4406 (strain recommended as inoculant of Enterolobium spp.) and UFLA-01-457 (isolated from contaminated soil), both belonging to the genus Bradyrhizobium] and the two most sensitive microorganisms (UFLA-01-486 and UFLA-01-510, both isolated from contaminated soil and belonging to the genus Azorhizobium) were selected.A heavy metal contaminated Latosol (Oxisol) was mixed with a natural low fertility Latosol at different proportions: 0, 15 and 45% (v/v).The mixtures were inoculated with 20mL of log phase culture in YM of the above strains, tested separately with three replications.Evaluation of viable cell number at 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28days of incubation by the method of successive dilutions inoculated in YMA medium revealed differentiated behavior among the microorganisms.The average cell numbers (CFU g-1 of soil) which survived to the end of 28days of incubation were for Bradyrhizobium: 10(10.36), 10(10.29) and 10(9.70), and for Azorhizobium 10(9.36), 10(7.54) and 0, at mixtures with 0%, 15% and 45% of contaminated soil, respectively, indicating that Azorhizobium survival was more affected by heavy metals than Bradyrhizobium survival.As Bradyrhizobium was also more tolerant to heavy metals "in vitro", results indicated that there was a relationship of tolerance between both substrates.
rhizobia; zinc; copper; cadmium; plumb; tolerance; soil pollution