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. 2017 Nov;8(6):687-695.
doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2017.09.001. Epub 2017 Sep 11.

Plant growth-promoting activities for bacterial and fungal endophytes isolated from medicinal plant of Teucrium polium L

Saad El-Din Hassan  1
Affiliations

Plant growth-promoting activities for bacterial and fungal endophytes isolated from medicinal plant of Teucrium polium L

Saad El-Din Hassan. J Adv Res. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Bacterial and fungal endophytes are widespread inhabitants inside plant tissues and have been shown to assist plant growth and health. However, little is known about plant growth-promoting endophytes (PGPE) of medicinal plants. Therefore, the aims of this study were to identify bacterial and fungal endophytes of Teucrium polium and to characterize plant growth-promoting (PGP) properties of these endophytes. Seven bacterial endophytes were isolated and identified as Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis, where five endophytic fungi were obtained and assigned to Penicillium chrysogenum and Penicillium crustosum. The isolated endophytes differentially produced indole acetic acid (IAA) and ammonia, and in addition to their enzymatic and antimicrobial activities, they exhibited variable capacity for phosphate solubilization. In order to investigate the effect of endophytes on plant growth, four representative endophytes and their consortiums were selected concerning to their potential ability to promote plant growth. The results indicated that microbial endophytes isolated from medicinal plants possessing a vital role to improve plant growth and could be used as inoculants to establish a sustainable crop production system.

Keywords: Antimicrobial activity; Endophyte; IAA; Phosphate solubilization; Plant growth promoting bacteria; Teucrium polium L.; Zea mays L..

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Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Phylogenetic analysis of: (a) 16S rRNA sequences of the bacterial isolates, and (b) ITS regions of fungal isolates, with the sequences from NCBI. Tp.1B-3B and Tp.3B-7B refer to 16S rRNA sequences retrieved from bacterial endophytes, where Tp.1F-2F and Tp3F-5F are the sequences obtained from fungal endophytes. The analysis was conducted with MEGA 6 using neighbor-joining method with bootstrap value (1000 replicates).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Quantitative production of IAA by: (a) endophytic bacterial isolates, and (b) endophytic fungal isolates; with and without tryptophan. Bars with the same letter for each endophytic isolates did not differ significantly at significant level of (P ≤ 0.05); Error bars indicate means ± SE by LSD test (n = 6).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
IAA production by the most potent of: (a) bacterial isolates (b) fungal isolates; in the presence of 5 mg/mL tryptophan and at different interval time course. At each time, asterisk denotes significant difference between control and endophytic isolates at significant level of (P ≤ 0.05) as determined by LSD test. Values are means ± SE (n = 6).
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