ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Tamrin Nuge1, Yumi Zuhanis Has-Yun Hashim1,2, Azura Amid1,2, Irwandi Jaswir1,2, Parveen Jamal1,2 and Hamzah Mohd. Salleh1,2
1Bioprocess and Molecular Engineering Research Unit, Department of Biotechnology
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia.
2International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), International Islamic University Malaysia.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2014;8(Spl. Edn. 1):769-776
© The Author(s). 2014
Received: 08/01/2014 | Accepted: 24/03/2014 | Published: 31/05/2014
Abstract

The distinctive fragrance and pleasing odor of the agarwood came from the resinous materials impregnated in the phloem of the tree as a response to infection. Artificial inoculants have been developed by “trial and error” methods to boost the resin formation. These artificial inoculants have been used widely in this region despite no strong scientific data and that they contribute to most of the cost for agarwood resin production. In collaboration with an agarwood industry player, a research work was initiated to isolate and identify the microorganisms present in an inoculant that has been proven effective in boosting the agarwood resin formation. Fifteen clones were constructed by extracting and amplifying the 16S rDNA and ITS sequences from the pure cultures isolated from the inoculant.  Three genera of microorganisms (Bacillus, Paenabacillus, Monascus) have been successfully identified. Two bacteria clones were phylogenetically affiliated with Paenibacillus sp. and four clones were associated with Bacillus sp. as well as three fungi clones were associated with Monascus sp. All the identified species are spore-forming microorganisms. The genera of Bacillus and Paenabacillus were able to utilize carbohydrate and protein from the tree as their energy sources. These two genera may be crucial to boost resin formation in agarwood.

Keywords

Agarwood, Inoculant, 16S rDNA, ITS, phylogeny

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© 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.