Biological nitrogen fixation is a key process for agricultural production and environmentalsustainability, but there are comparatively few studies of symbionts of tropical pasture legumes, aswell as few described species of the genus Bradyrhizobium, although it is the predominant rhizobialgenus in the tropics. A detailed polyphasic study was conducted with two strains of the genusBradyrhizobium used in commercial inoculants for tropical pastures in Brazil, CNPSo 1112T, isolatedfrom perennial soybean (Neonotonia wightii), and CNPSo 2833T, from desmodium (Desmodiumheterocarpon). Based on 16S-rRNA gene phylogeny, both strains were grouped in theBradyrhizobium elkanii superclade, but were not clearly clustered with any known species. Multilocussequence analysis of three (glnII, gyrB and recA) and five (plus atpD and dnaK) housekeeping genesconfirmed that the strains are positioned in two distinct clades. Comparison with intergenictranscribed spacer sequences of type strains of described species of the genus Bradyrhizobiumshowed similarity lower than 93.1 %, and differences were confirmed by BOX-PCR analysis.Nucleotide identity of three housekeeping genes with type strains of described species ranged from88.1 to 96.2 %. Average nucleotide identity of genome sequences showed values below thethreshold for distinct species of the genus Bradyrhizobium (,90.6 %), and the value between thetwo strains was also below this threshold (91.2 %). Analysis of nifH and nodC gene sequencespositioned the two strains in a clade distinct from other species of the genus Bradyrhizobium.Morphophysiological, genotypic and genomic data supported the description of two novel species inthe genus Bradyrhizobium, Bradyrhizobium tropiciagri sp. nov. (type strain CNPSo 1112T5SMS303T5BR 1009T5SEMIA 6148T5LMG 28867T) and Bradyrhizobium embrapense sp. nov. (typestrain CNPSo 2833T=CIAT 2372T5BR 2212T5SEMIA 6208T5U674T5LMG 2987).