| Summary: | Chickpea (<i>Cicer arietinum</i> L.) is one of the world’s main leguminous crops that provide chief source of food for humans. In the present study, we characterized thirty isolates of indigenous chickpea rhizobia from Myanmar based on the sequence analysis of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. The sequence analysis confirmed that all isolates were categorized and identified as the genus <i>Mesorhizobium</i> and they were conspecific with <i>M. plurifarium</i>, <i>M. muliense</i>, <i>M. tianshanense</i>, and <i>M</i>. sp. This is the first report describing <i>M. muliense, M. tianshanense,</i> and <i>M. plurifurium</i> from different geographical distribution of indigenous mesorhizobia of chickpea in Myanmar. In order to substitute the use of chemical fertilizers in legume production, there is a need for the production of Biofertilizers with rhizobial inoculants. The effectiveness of Myanmar <i>Mesorhizobim</i> strains isolated from soil samples of major chickpea growing areas of Myanmar for plant growth and nitrogen fixation were studied in pot experiments. The nodule dry weight and acetylene reduction activity of the plant inoculated with <i>Mesorhizobium tianshanense</i> SalCP19 was significantly higher than the other tested isolates in Yezin-4 chickpea variety. But, <i>Mesorhizobium</i> sp. SalCP17 was showed high level of acetylene reduction activity per plant in Yezin-6 chickpea variety.
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