Bacterial community compositions of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.) seeds and plant growth promoting activity of ACC deaminase producing Bacillus subtilis (HYT-12-1) on tomato seedlings.

Study of endophytic bacteria within plant seeds is very essential and meaningful on account of their heritability and versatility. This study investigated Bacillus bacterial communities within the seeds of four commercial tomato varieties, by 16S rRNA gene PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism). Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the 22 representative isolates belonged to five species of genus Bacillus and the bacterial compositions showed remarkable differences among tomato varieties. Isolates exhibited multiple plant growth promoting (PGP) traits: 37 % of indole-3-acetic acid production; 37 % of phosphate solubilization; 24 % of siderophores production; 85 % of potential nitrogen fixation and 6 % of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity. Isolate HYT-12-1 was shown to have highest ACC deaminase activity (112.02 nmol α-ketobutyrate mg⁻¹ protein h⁻¹) among the five ACC deamiase producing strains. 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that the isolate HYT-12-1 shared the highest sequence similarity (100 %) with B. subtilis. PGP experiments under gnotobiotic and greenhouse conditions revealed the ability of strain HYT-12-1 to enhance the growth of tomato seedlings. This is the first study to describe endophytic Bacillus communities within tomato seeds, and the results suggest that B. subtilis strain HYT-12-1 would have a great potential for industrial application as biofertilizer in the future.

Novel xylanase from a holstein cattle rumen metagenomic library and its application in xylooligosaccharide and ferulic Acid production from wheat straw.

A novel gene fragment containing a xylanase was identified from a Holstein cattle rumen metagenomic library. The novel xylanase (Xyln-SH1) belonged to the glycoside hydrolase family 10 (GH10) and exhibited a maximum of 44% identity to the glycoside hydrolase from Clostridium thermocellum ATCC 27405. Xyln-SH1 was heterologously expressed, purified, and characterized. A high level of activity was obtained under the optimum conditions of pH 6.5 and 40 °C. A substrate utilization study indicated that Xyln-SH1 was cellulase-free and strictly specific to xylan from softwood. The synergistic effects of Xyln-SH1 and feruloyl esterase (FAE-SH1) were observed for the release of xylooligosaccharides (XOS) and ferulic acid (FA) from wheat straw. In addition, a high dose of Xyln-SH1 alone was observed to improve the release of FA from wheat straw. These features suggest that this enzyme has substantial potential to improve biomass degradation and industrial applications.