Selection of phytotoxin producing rhizobacteria

In order to select phytotoxin producing rhizobacteria to control weed plants, twenty five bacterial strains previously isolated from the rhizospheres of various plants were grown in a liquid medium and, after cell removal by centrifugation, the liquid phases were freeze-dried and the products were extracted with ethyl acetate/methanol. The extracts were concentrated to dryness under vacuum and dissolved in water and sucrose solution to be submitted to in vitro assays of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) seed germination and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) coleoptile growth. Although most samples affected coleoptile growth, only those from four strains reduced lettuce seed germination. Two strains of Bacillus cereus, one strain of B. pumilus and one of Stenotrophoonas altophilia were the most promising microorganisms for producing phytotoxin and, consequently, for the development of new weed control products.

Com o objetivo de selecionar rizobactérias produtoras de fitotoxinas para uso no controle de plantas daninhas, vinte e cinco isolados bacterianos previamente obtidos das rizosferas de diferentes plantas foram cultivados em meio líquido e, após remoção das células por centrifugação, as fases líquidas foram liofilizadas e os resíduos obtidos foram submetidos à extração com acetato de etila/metanol. Os extratos foram concentrados sob vácuo até secura e dissolvidos em água e solução de sacarose para serem submetidos a testes in vitro de germinação de sementes de alface (Lactuca sativa L.) e de crescimento de coleóptilos de trigo (Triticum aestivum L.). Embora a maior parte das amostras tenha desfavorecido o crescimento dos coleóptilos de trigo, somente as provenientes de quatro isolados reduziram a germinação das sementes de alface. Dois isolados de Bacillus cereus, um isolado de B. pumilus e um de Stenotrophomonas maltophilia foram os microrganismos mais promissores para a produção de fitotoxinas, com possibilidade de uso no desenvolvimento de novos produtos para o controle de plantas daninhas.

In silico comparison of bacterial strains using mutual information.

Fast-sequencing throughput methods have increased the number of completely sequenced bacterial genomes to about 400 by December 2006, with the number increasing rapidly. These include several strains. In silico methods of comparative genomics are of use in categorizing and phylogenetically sorting these bacteria. Various word-based tools have been used for quantifying the similarities and differences between entire genomes. The simple di-nucleotide frequency comparison, codon specificity and k-mer repeat detection are among some of the well-known methods. In this paper, we show that the Mutual Information function, which is a measure of correlations and a concept from Information Theory, is very effective in determining the similarities and differences among genome sequences of various strains of bacteria such as the plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa, marine Cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus marinus or animal and human pathogens such as species of Ehrlichia and Legionella. The short-range three-base periodicity, small sequence repeats and long-range correlations taken together constitute a genome signature that can be used as a technique for identifying new bacterial strains with the help of strains already catalogued in the database. There have been several applications of using the Mutual Information function as a measure of correlations in genomics but this is the first whole genome analysis done to detect strain similarities and differences.