Diversity and Plant Growth-Promoting Potential of (un)culturable Bacteria in the Hedera Helix Phylloplane
Abstract BackgroundAn abundant and diverse community of microorganisms naturally exists on the phylloplane, the surface of leaves. It is one of the most prevalent microbial habitats on earth and bacteria are by far the most abundant members, living in a community that is highly dynamic. To increase our knowledge about the diversity and function of microbial communities living in the phylloplane, culture-dependent and -independent approaches help us a great deal.ResultsHere we isolated bacteria from the phylloplane of Hedera helix (common ivy), a widespread evergreen, using five different growth media. We further included a comparison with the uncultured phylloplane, which we show to contain the highest intra-sample diversity. Inter-sample bacterial diversity shifts from growth media most rich in nutrients to those which are more selective. The four major phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes comprised the vast majority of phyla in the uncultured H. helix phylloplane, which furthermore were fully represented within growth medium samples. The plant growth promotion (PGP) profile we obtained by testing 200 isolates can help to select candidates with advantageous traits within various microbe-assisted approaches. Our isolation effort also resulted in a significant collection of bacterial strains underrepresented in public databases, mostly from the phylum Actinobacteria. ConclusionsThis study contributes as a case study of bacterial culturability and its relation with functional characteristics such as PGP potential which also is an important step towards understanding the ecological and functional role of microbial members living in the H. helix phylloplane.