Endophytic bacterial diversity in Glycyrrhiza inflata Bat. from Xinjiang by culture-independent method

Abstract:

Abstract: [Objective] We investigated endophytic bacterial diversity in Glycyrrhiza inflata Bat. from Xinjiang. [Methods] We investigated endophytic bacterial diversity in root of Glycyrrhiza inflata Bat. from Xingjian by culture-independent method. Total DNA genome of Glycyrrhiza sample was extracted using CTAB (Hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium Bromide) procedure with some modifications. A pair of bacterial PCR primers were used for endophytic bacterial 16S rDNA gene amplification and a clone library was constructed for the Glycyrrhiza DNA samples. Clones screened from clone library on the basis of Hae III digestion patterns were sequenced and compared, flowed by constructing Neighbor-Joining tree. [Results] In total 150 clones were grouped to 32 operational taxonomic units, most of the clones showed high similarity to the known cultured bacteria. Sequence analysis revealed diverse phyla of bacteria in the 16S rDNA library, which consisted of alpha, gamma subclasses of the Proteobacteria, Bacteroides, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Uncultured bacteria; 74% of the clones were highly related to the known bacteria in the genus Sphingobium, Phyllobacterium, Hyphomonas, Agrobacterium etc (>96% sequence similarity); whereas 26% of the clones showed lower affiliation with known genus (<96% sequence similarity) and may represent novel taxa. [Conclusion] There was abundant endophytic bacterial diversity in Glycyrrhiza inflata Bat. from Xinjiang as well as many unknown organisms.