Abstract
The coconut is an important economic crop in the Philippines which currently ranks as the world’s second largest producer. This study characterised and identified endophytes from coconut tissue culture in order to gain an initial understanding of their potential uses as sources of bioproducts. The isolates were evaluated using morphological, biochemical and molecular methods. Gram staining results revealed that four out of five bacteria isolated were Gram positive. Isolate CEB 1 fermented all three sugars in the Triple Sugar Iron Test while the other four did not. 16S rDNA gene fragments were amplified from genomic DNA using the universal primers 16F27 and 16R1542. The 16S rDNA sequence were found to be homologous to Bacillus subtilis and Pantoea dispersa. Phylogenetic analyses showed significant clustering of bacterial isolates together with archived DNA of B. subtilis and P. dispersa. All isolated bacteria matched the characteristics of their molecular homologies. Isolate CEB 5, identified as B. subtilis, produced red pigments which are possibly pulcherrimin. Literature reports that pulcherrimin possesses antimicrobial activity against yeast species, microscopic fungi, and postharvest pathogens. P. dispera, on the other hand, has been reported to convert insoluble phosphorus into soluble form to enable plants to take up more phosphorus. Determination of the bioactivities of endophytes reported in this study may enable the discovery of novel bioproducts.
Highlights
The Philippines is the second largest producer of coconut accounting for 32.67% of world production (Naik 2017)
Five bacterial samples from coconut plumule explants in tissue culture were collected and plated on nutrient agar (NA) medium composed of 3 g beef extract, 5 g peptone, 5 g NaCl2 and 8 g agar per litre of water
Biochemical test results implied that isolate CEB1 is a member of the Family Enterobacteriaceae
Summary
The Philippines is the second largest producer of coconut accounting for 32.67% of world production (Naik 2017). The traditional way of planting coconut is by seed. Coconut palms planted from seeds take about five to six years before the first fruits develop (Chan & Elevitch 2006). This makes the replacement of palms very. Elv Nhiel Salo and Annabelle Novero time consuming in terms of coconut production since it would take time before plants could produce fruit. Many problems are encountered during the course of micropropagation. Examples of these would be phenolic exudation, necrosis, habituation and contamination (Bhatia et al 2015). Chemical contaminants come from the reagents and materials used while biological contaminants come from the plant itself.
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