∗Speaker. †We (S.D. and P.U.) thank the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics in Florence for the hospitality and the INFN for partial support during the completion of this work. P.U. is supported as Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG. This work is supported in part by the European Community’s Marie-Curie Research Training Network HEPTOOLS under contract MR...

Endophytic bacteria live inside plant tissues without causing disease. Studies of endophytes in sugarcane have focused on the isolation of diazotrophic bacteria. We examined the diversity of endophytic bacteria in the internal tissues of sugarcane stems and leaves, using molecular and biochemical methods. Potato-agar medium was used to cultivate the endophytes; 32 isolates were selected for ana...

Investigating the endophytic bacterial community in special moss species is fundamental to understanding the microbial-plant interactions and discovering the bacteria with stresses tolerance. Thus, the community structure of endophytic bacteria in the xerophilous moss Grimmia montana were estimated using a 16S rDNA library and traditional cultivation methods. In total, 212 sequences derived fro...

A bacterial strain isolated from sewage sludge compost, strain SC-083T, was characterized. The isolate was a motile, Gram-positive, short rod, forming coryneform V-shaped cells during the early stages of growth. The organism was strictly aerobic and able to grow between 22 and 36 degrees C and between pH 5.5 and 8.0. The predominant fatty acids were cyclohexyl-C17 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C...

Microbial ecology has been transformed by the advent of high-throughput marker gene and metagenomic sequencing methods. These tools provide expansive descriptions of microbial communities, but the descriptions are framed in terms of molecular objects, such as 97% ribosomal operational taxonomic units (OTUs), rather than biological objects, such as species. A recent study by A. B. Chase and coll...

Microbial communities in the endosphere of Salicaceae plants, poplar (Populus trichocarpa) and willow (Salix sitchensis), have been demonstrated to be important for plant growth promotion, protection from biotic and abiotic stresses, and degradation of toxic compounds. Our study aimed to investigate bio-control activities of Salicaceae endophytes against various soil borne plant pathogens inclu...

This study was aimed to investigate the diversity and function of bacterial population associated with Gigaspora margarita spores. The fungus was propagated in sterilized sand/soil pots using alfalfa (Medicago sativa), grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), or maize (Zea mays) as host plants, or in sterilized vermiculite pots using alfalfa as host plants, respectively. Bacteria were isolated from the...

Xylella fastidiosa is a xylem-limited bacterium that causes citrus variegated chlorosis disease in sweet orange. There is evidence that X. fastidiosa interacts with endophytic bacteria present in the xylem of sweet orange, and that these interactions, particularly with Methylobacterium mesophilicum, may affect disease progress. However, these interactions cannot be evaluated in detail until eff...

Accurate and rapid detection of bacterial plant pathogen is the first step toward disease management and prevention of pathogen spread. Bacterial plant pathogens Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis (Cmn), Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii (Pss), and Rathayibacter tritici (Rt) cause Goss's bacterial wilt and blight of maize, Stewart's wilt of maize and spike blight of wheat and barley...

Transaminases are useful biocatalysts for the production of amino acids and chiral amines as intermediates for a broad range of drugs and fine chemicals. Here, we describe the discovery and characterisation of new transaminases from microorganisms which were enriched in selective media containing (R)-amines as sole nitrogen source. While most of the candidate proteins were clearly assigned to k...