Isolation and Characterization of Endophytes Against Bacterial Blight of Pomegranate

Abstract

The endophytic study was undertaken during 2019–2020 at department of plant pathology, Dr, YS Parmar UHF, Nauni, Solan (HP), India against Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae inciting bacterial blight of pomegranate. Endophytes which we used, either endophytic bacteria or fungi have been isolated from four different genotypes/cultivars (Wild pomegranate, Kandhari, G-137 and Sindhuri) of pomegranate to study the isolation procedure and characterization of the endophytic microbes that colonize pomegranate plants. The huge diversity among the endophytic microbes and the host plants hinders a uniform protocol for isolation of endophytes and the establishment of inciting agent of bacterial blight. The most common technique that is currently used involves a thorough surface sterilization followed by fragmentation of the plant tissue and dilutions, culture of the fragments onto agar plates for endophytic bacteria and fragmentation of leaf bits after thorough surface sterilization onto agar plate for endophytic fungi. Among 27 and 19 bacterial and fungal endophytes, three potential microbes of each were selected after in vitro assay against Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae which causes bacterial blight disease, and were identified based on morphological, biochemical, and cultural characteristics, respectively. This is the first report of endophytic microbes from the leaves of Punica granatum genotypes/cultivars in Himachal Pradesh, India. Future studies will determine the potential application of these isolates in biological control, growth promotion, enzyme production and colonization in host for induction of defense mechanism against bacterial blight disease of pomegranate.