Abstract
The study was conducted to comprehend the facets of culturable endophytic diversity correlating with the fitness of cultivar. Tomato bacterial endophytes from cultivars Arka Rakshak (AR; multi-disease tolerant hybrid) and Pusa Ruby (PR; susceptible check) were isolated. Molecular identification quantified that only two genera Rhizobium and Bacillus were common in both cultivars out of fifteen genera isolated. Genera Microbacterium, Enterobacter, Falsibacillus, Cohnella, Youhaiella, and Fluviicola were found only in AR, whereas genera Chryseobacterium, Pseudomonas, Dyadobacter, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Microvirga, and Shinella were found only in PR. Although the genera level diversity indicated cultivar specificity, except for firmicutes (7 in AR and 4 in PR), the distribution of taxonomic class alphaproteobacteria, gammaproteobacteria, bacteroidetes, and actinobacteria was almost similar. Gram-positive class was dominated by firmicutes and Gram-negative by alphaproteobacteria in both cultivars. On contrary, the collective functional profile for the production of hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and siderophore, apart from phosphate solubilization and indole acetic acid production, indicated the dominance of endophytes from AR (multi-disease tolerant hybrid). The pattern of antagonistic ability against 15 different strains of R. solanacearum indicated that endophytes from tolerant cultivar exhibit higher in vitro suppression. The number of antagonists and the extent of inhibition both were higher in AR endophytes. However, the genetic capability for harboring eight antimicrobial compounds producing genes was found to be well distributed in both cultivars. Results showed that the functional aspects of these bacterial endophytes correlate with cultivar fitness more than that of taxonomic and genetic diversity.
Published Version
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