Community Structure, Diversity and Potential of Endophytic Bacteria in the Primitive New Zealand Medicinal Plant Pseudowintera colorata

Although the importance of the plant microbiome in commercial plant health has been well established, there are limited studies in native medicinal plants. <i>Pseudowintera colorata</i> (horopito) is a native New Zealand medicinal plant recognized for its antimicrobial properties. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and Illumina MiSeq analysis of <i>P. colorata</i> plants from ten sites across New Zealand showed that tissue type strongly influenced the diversity and richness of endophytic bacteria (PERMANOVA, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.05). In addition, two OTUs belonging to the genus <i>Pseudomonas</i> (Greengenes ID: 646549 and 138914) were found to be present in &gt;75% of all <i>P. colorata</i> leaf, stem and root samples and were identified as the members of the <i>P. colorata</i> &#8220;core endomicrobiome&#8221;. Culture-independent analysis was complemented by the recovery of 405 endophytic bacteria from the tissues of <i>P. colorata</i>. Some of these cultured endophytic bacteria (n = 10) showed high antagonism against four different phytopathogenic fungi tested. The influence of endophytic bacteria on plant growth was assessed by inoculating <i>P. colorata</i> seedlings. The mean shoot height of seedlings treated with <i>Bacillus</i> sp. TP1LA1B were longer (1.83&#215;), had higher shoot dry weight (1.8&#215;) and produced more internodes (1.8&#215;) compared to the control.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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