Glyphosate applications to glyphosate-resistant soybean may impair symbiosis with Bradyrhizobium, a symbiotic bacterium. This study evaluated the sensitivity to glyphosate of three Bradyrhizobium strains used commercially in soybean crop in Brazil. The concentrations (0.0; 5.4; 10.8; 21.6 e 43.2 µg L-1) of the active ingredient glyphosate [N(phosphonomethyl)glycine] were added to YM liquid medium for the growth of one strain of B. japonicum (SEMIA 5079) and two strains of B. elkanni (SEMIA 5019 and SEMIA 587) inoculated as pure culture. The herbicide effect on the growth of the tested strains was assessed by optical density and growth curves were established for each strain. Reduction in growth of strains in the lowest glyphosate concentration were 18% for SEMIA 5079, 29% for SEMIA 5019 and 35% for SEMIA 587. In general, the higher the concentration of the herbicide in the culture medium, the greater the growth inhibition. The strains showed differential sensitivity only at the lowest concentrations of glyphosate, allowing the determination of the following order of sensitivity: SEMIA 587>SEMIA 5019>SEMIA 5079. This differential sensitivity is dependent on the herbicide concentration, since in the presence of 43.2 µg L-1 all strains severely reduced growth, not showing difference among them.
Herbicide; soybean; inoculant; rhizobium; EPSPs