ISSN: 0973-7510
E-ISSN: 2581-690X
The diversity of endophytic bacteria associated with wild forest of Populus euphratica Oliv located in arid and saline area of northwestern China was investigated for the first time. 197 stable isolates were isolated from the tissues of P. euphratica trees and were further classified into 102 operation taxonomic units (OTUs) by amplifed ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and morphology. Based on the sequence analysis of partial 16S rRNA genes, the 102 representative strains of each OTU belong to 21 genera, in which the Bacillus and Pseudomonas were the most common consisting of 49.0% and 14.7% of the community respectively. 16.7% of the representative strains were demonstrated to improve the germination of wheat (Triticum aestivum) seeds under salinity stress as plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB). However, most lost the germination promoting effects when salinity stress was revoked. Interestingly, the proportion of PGPB on all endophytes exhibited a marked escalating trend along with the increase of bacterial salt tolerance.
Endophytes, Bacterial community, Salinity stress, Populus euphratica, PGPB, ARDRA
© The Author(s) 2014. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.