Screening of diazotrophic bacteria Azopirillum spp. for nitrogen fixation and auxin production in multiple field sites in southern Brazil

Plant endophytes: unveiling hidden applications toward agro-environment sustainability

Endophytic microbes are plant-associated microorganisms that reside in the interior tissue of plants without causing damage to the host plant. Endophytic microbes can boost the availability of nutrient for plant by using a variety of mechanisms such as fixing nitrogen, solubilizing phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, and producing siderophores, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and phytohormones that help plant for growth and protection against various abiotic and biotic stresses. The microbial endophytes have attained the mechanism of producing various hydrolytic enzymes such as cellulase, pectinase, xylanase, amylase, gelatinase, and bioactive compounds for plant growth promotion and protection. The efficient plant growth promoting endophytic microbes could be used as an alternative of chemical fertilizers for agro-environmental sustainability. Endophytic microbes belong to different phyla including Euryarchaeota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mucoromycota, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. The most pre-dominant group of bacteria belongs to Proteobacteria including α-, β-, γ-, and δ-Proteobacteria. The least diversity of the endophytic microbes have been revealed from Bacteroidetes, Deinococcus-Thermus, and Acidobacteria. Among reported genera, Achromobacter, Burkholderia, Bacillus, Enterobacter, Herbaspirillum, Pseudomonas, Pantoea, Rhizobium, and Streptomyces were dominant in most host plants. The present review deals with plant endophytic diversity, mechanisms of plant growth promotion, protection, and their role for agro-environmental sustainability. In the future, application of endophytic microbes have potential role in enhancement of crop productivity and maintaining the soil health in sustainable manner.

Endophytic Bacteria Potentially Promote Plant Growth by Synthesizing Different Metabolites and their Phenotypic/Physiological Profiles in the Biolog GEN III MicroPlateTM Test

Endophytic bacteria, as the most promising components of effective, biofertilizers biostimulating and biocontrol preparations, should be very intensively obtained from various plants and studied in terms of the conditions determining the potential ability to promote plant growth. For this reason, endophytic bacteria have been isolated from both stems and roots of up to six systematically distant species of vascular plants: one species belonging to the seedless vascular plants (Monilophyta), and five seed plants (Spermatophyta). The 23 isolated strains represented nine genera: Delftia, Stenotrophomonas, Rhizobium, Brevundimonas, Variovorax, Achromobacter, Novosphingobium, Comamonas and Collimonas, notably which were closely related—belonging to the phylum Proteobacteria. Stenotrophomonas sp. strains showed the greatest ability to synthesize indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-like compounds, while Achromobacter sp. strains produced the highest levels of siderophores. The presence of the nifH gene and nitrogen binding activity was demonstrated for 95% of the strains tested. Stenotrophomonas maltophila (ES2 strain) showed the highest metabolic activity based on Biolog GEN III test. The ability to solubilize phosphate was determined only for three tested strains from genus: Delftia, Rhizobium and Novosphingobium. The presented work demonstrated that the metabolic and phenotypic properties of plant growth-promoting endophytes are correlated with the genus of bacteria and are not correlated with the host plant species or part of plant (stem, root).

Enterobacter cloacae, an Endophyte That Establishes a Nutrient-Transfer Symbiosis With Banana Plants and Protects Against the Black Sigatoka Pathogen

Banana (Musa spp.) is an important crop worldwide, but black Sigatoka disease caused by the fungus Pseudocercospora fijiensis threatens fruit production. In this work, we examined the potential of the endophytes of banana plants Enterobacter cloacae and Klebsiella pneumoniae, as antagonists of P. fijiensis and support plant growth in nutrient limited soils by N-transfer. The two bacterial isolates were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and corroborated by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Both bacteria were positive for beneficial traits such as N-fixation, indole acetic acid production, phosphate solubilization, negative for 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylic acid deaminase and were antagonistic to P. fijiensis. To measure the effects on plant growth, the two plant bacteria and an E. coli strain (as non-endophyte), were inoculated weekly for 60 days as active cells (AC) and heat-killed cells (HKC) into plant microcosms without nutrients and compared to a water only treatment, and a mineral nutrients solution (MMN) treatment. Bacterial treatments increased growth parameters and prevented accelerated senescence, which was observed for water and mineral nutrients solution (MMN) treatments used as controls. Plants died after the first 20 days of being irrigated with water; irrigation with MMN enabled plants to develop some new leaves, but plants lost weight (−30%) during the same period. Plants treated with bacteria showed good growth, but E. cloacae AC treated plants had significantly greater biomass than the E. cloacae HKC. After 60 days, plants inoculated with E. cloacae AC showed intracellular bacteria within root cells, suggesting that a stable symbiosis was established. To evaluate the transference of organic N from bacteria into the plants, the 3 bacteria were grown with ¹⁵NH₄Cl or Na¹⁵NO₃ as the nitrogen source. The ¹⁵N transferred from bacteria to plant tissues was measured by pheophytin isotopomer abundance. The relative abundance of the isotopomers m/z 872.57, 873.57, 874.57, 875.57, 876.57 unequivocally demonstrated that plants acquired ¹⁵N atoms directly from bacterial cells, using them as a source of N, to support plant growth in restricted nutrient soils. E. cloacae might be a new alternative to promote growth and health of banana crops.

A multiphasic approach for the identification of endophytic bacterial in strawberry fruit and their potential for plant growth promotion

This study used a multiphasic approach, characterized by the simultaneous use of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, to investigate endophytic bacterial communities in strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) fruit. A total of 92 bacterial endophytes were isolated and initially grouped by their repetitive extragenic palindromic (rep)-PCR banding pattern and biochemical features. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of 45 representatives showed that the isolates belonged to the species Bacillus subtilis (eight isolates), Bacillus sp. (seven isolates), Enterobacter sp. (seven isolates), Enterobacter ludwigii (six isolates), Lactobacillus plantarum (six isolates), Pseudomonas sp. (five isolates), Pantoea punctata (three isolates), and Curtobacterium citreum (three isolates). Nucleic acids were extracted from the strawberry fruit and subjected to 16S rRNA gene directed polymerase chain reaction denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (16S rRNA PCR-DGGE). The species B. subtilis, Enterobacter sp., and Pseudomonas sp. were detected both by isolation and DGGE. The DGGE fingerprints of total bacterial DNA did not exhibit bands corresponding to several of the representative species isolated in the extinction dilution (L. plantarum, C. citreum, and P. punctata). In contrast, bands in the DGGE profile that were identified as relatives of Arthrobacter sp. and one uncultivable Erythrobacter sp. were not recovered by cultivation techniques. After isolation, the nitrogen fixation ability and the in vitro production of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) equivalents and siderophores were evaluated. A high percentage of isolates were found to possess the ability to produce siderophores and IAA equivalents; however, only a few isolates belonging to the genera Pseudomonas and Enterobacter showed the ability to fix nitrogen. Plant growth promotion was evaluated under greenhouse conditions and revealed the ability of the Bacillus strains to enhance the number of leaves, shoot length, root dry weight, and shoot dry weight. The activity of the bacterial isolate identified as B. subtilis NA-108 exerted the greatest influence on strawberry growth and showed a 42.8% increase in number of leaves, 15.26% for high shoot, 43.5% increase in root dry weight, and a 77% increase in shoot dry weight when compared with untreated controls.

Characterization of nitrogen-fixing bacteria isolated from field-grown barley, oat, and wheat

Diazotrophic bacteria were isolated from the rhizosphere of field-grown Triticum aestivum, Hordeum vulgare, and Avena sativa grown in various regions of Greece. One isolate, with the highest nitrogen-fixation ability from each of the eleven rhizospheres, was selected for further characterisation. Diazotrophic strains were assessed for plant-growth-promoting traits such as indoleacetic acid production and phosphate solubilisation. The phylogenies of 16S rRNA gene of the selected isolates were compared with those based on dnaK and nifH genes. The constructed trees indicated that the isolates were members of the species Azospirillum brasilense, Azospirillum zeae, and Pseudomonas stutzeri. Furthermore, the ipdC gene was detected in all A. brasilence and one A. zeae isolates. The work presented here provides the first molecular genetic evidence for the presence of culturable nitrogen-fixing P. stutzeri and A. zeae associated with field-grown A. sativa and H. vulgare in Greece.

The genetic diversity of culturable nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the rhizosphere of wheat

A total of 17 culturable nitrogen-fixing bacterial strains associated with the roots of wheat growing in different regions of Greece were isolated and characterized for plant-growth-promoting traits such as auxin production and phosphate solubilization. The phylogenetic position of the isolates was first assessed by the analysis of the PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene. The comparative sequence analysis and phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences show that the isolates recovered in this study are grouped with Azospirillum brasilense, Azospirillum zeae, and Pseudomonas stutzeri. The diazotrophic nature of all isolates was confirmed by amplification of partial nifH gene sequences. The phylogenetic tree based on nifH gene sequences is consistent with 16S rRNA gene phylogeny. The isolates belonging to Azospirillum species were further characterized by examining the partial dnaK gene phylogenetic tree. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the ipdC gene was present in all Azospirillum isolates, suggesting that auxin is mainly synthesized via the indole-3-pyruvate pathway. Although members of P. stutzeri and A. zeae are known diazotrophic bacteria, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of isolation and characterization of strains belonging to these bacterial genera associated with wheat.