Bacterial endophytes of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) as promising tools in viticulture: isolation, characterization and detection in inoculated plants

A.V. Shcherbakov¹²*, S.A. Mulina¹³, P.Yu. Rots¹³, E.N. Shcherbakova¹ and V.K. Chebotar¹²

¹All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology, Shosse Podbelskogo 3, Pushkin, RU 196608 St. Petersburg, Russia
²ITMO State University
³St. Petersburg State Technological Institute, Moskovsky prospect 26, RU 190013 St. Petersburg, Russia
*Correspondence: avsherbakov@bisolbi.ru

Abstract:

Bacterial endophytes may positively influence the host plants, and the search for new strains with beneficial properties is a promising research direction. We isolated culturable endophytic bacterial strains from cuttings of grapevine of four cultivars, identified and characterized their physiological properties and studied colonization process and localization sites of the introduced DsRed-labeled strain. The taxonomic diversity of microorganisms isolated from the inner tissues of grapevine was identified based on the analysis of the 16S rRNA gene fragments. Several promising strains of endophytic bacteria were isolated. DsRed+ phenotypes were obtained by transformation. Their introduction into grapevine plants made it possible to reveal their localization in the plant vascular tissues.

Key words:

16S rRNA gene, bacterial endophytes, colonization activity, CSLM, DsRed- labeling, grape (Vitis vinifera L.)

Detection of aster yellows group (subgroup 16SrI-B) phytoplasma in oats based on nested PCR and RFLP in Lithuania

L. Urbanavičienė, D. Valiūnas and R. Jomantienė

Institute of Botany, Plant Virus Laboratory,Žaliųjų Ežerų 49, LT-08406 Vilnius, Lithuania; e-mail: urbanala@botanika.lt

Abstract:

Phytoplasma strains were detected in oats (Avena sativa L.) in Lithuania exhibiting disease symptoms of stunting, sterile, deformed and yellow spikes. A phytoplasma-characteristic 1.8 kb and 1.2 kb rDNA PCR products were amplified from DNAs of all diseased but not healthy oat plants tested, using phytoplasma universal primer pairs P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2 confirming that symptomatic plants were infected by phytoplasma. Phytoplasma was termed oat stunt (OatSt). Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of amplified 16S rDNA indicated that diseased oats were infected by phytoplasma belonging to the group 16SrI (aster yellows, AY, group) and subgroup 16SrI-B. This is the first report of phytoplasma belonging to 16SrI (aster yellows) group and 16SrI-B phytoplasma subgroup identified in oat plants.

Key words: