An Ability of Endophytes from Blackboard Tree (Alstonia scholaris) in Increasing Chili Performance

Restya Ulfa¹, Dwi Suryanto² and Erman Munir²

¹Graduate Student of Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jln. Bioteknologi No. 1, Medan, Indonesia 20155.
²Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jln. Bioteknologi No. 1, Medan, Indonesia 20155.

Abstract

Endophytes are a group of bacteria live in plant tissues, and have been numerously reported to promote plant growth. The aim of this study was to observe bacterial endophytes from blackboard tree (Alstonia scholaris) in inhibiting pathogenic fungal growth on chili plants, promoting plant growth and producing indole acetic acid, as well as in solubilizing phosphate. Sixteen endophytic bacteria were isolated from blackboard tree root and leaf samples, in which two, A1 and A3, out of sixteen showed to highly inhibit pathogenic fungi Fusarium sp. and Colletrotichum sp., to produce indol acetic acid, and to solubilize phosphate. 16S rRNA gene sequenceshowed that A1 was relativey closed to Carnobacterium gallinarum strain DSM4847 and A3was relativey closed to Carnobacterium maltaromaticum strain JCM 1154 with similarity of 84 and 78%, respectively.

Keywords: Alstonia scholaris, blackboard tree, chili, endophytes, indole acetic acid, phosphate