Isolation and Characterization of Bacterial Endophytes from Maize Genotypes Varying in Resistance against Macrophomina phaseolina
Y. Pavani
Department of Plant Pathology, College of agriculture, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, India.
B. Mallaiah *
Maize Research Centre, ARI, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, India.
V. Ramya
Department of Plant Pathology, College of agriculture, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, India.
M. V. Nagesh Kumar
Maize Research Centre, ARI, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, India.
S. Triveni
Department of Agricultural Microbiology & Bioenergy, College of Agriculture, R’nagar, India.
B. Vidyasagar
Department of Plant Pathology, College of agriculture, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present work aims to isolate and characterize the bacterial endophytes associated with different maize genotypes varying in resistance to disease reaction against Macrophomina phaseolina. A total of 50 endophytic bacteria were isolated from root and stem of healthy maize plants at 30 DAS, 60 DAS by using two different media like TSA, NA medium and maximum number of endophytic bacterial population were recovered from root followed by stem in all the genotypes and TSA medium was found to be the most suitable medium for deciphering maximum endophytic bacterial diversity. The isolated bacterial endophytes were characterized on the basis of morphological parameters viz., size, shape, colour, margin and texture, elevation, gram staining reaction and it was observed that Gram positive bacteria (68.0 %) formed the dominant group. The colony characterization revealed that circular forms (38.0 %) were dominated. Among the colony features the colonies with entire margins (66.0 %) and convex elevation (44.0 %) were found to be dominating.
Keywords: Endophytes, genotypes, maize, morphological characteristics