The nitrogen fixing bacterium, Rhizobium leguminosarum, isolated from the root nodules of garden pea (Pisum sativum) is cultured in a petri plate containing appropriate nutrient agar medium. A bacterial colony was picked and inoculated into a liquid growth medium to scale up the culture for the production of biofertilizer. Which one of the following statements is correct?
1
The liquid culture will be red/pink in color due to the accumulation of the pigment leghaemoglobin.
2
The rhizobial cells when reinoculated into the rhizosphere of soybean plants will effectively nodulate its roots to fix atmospheric nitrogen.
3
The rhizobial cells cannot fix nitrogen when exposed to atmospheric air.
4
The rhizobial cells get transformed into bacterioids when grown in liquid media.