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Burkholderia cepacia population naturally occurring in the rhizosphere of Zea mays was investigated in order to assess the degree of root association and microbial biodiversity at five stages of plant growth. The bacterial strains isolated on semiselective PCAT medium were mostly assigned to the species B. cepacia by an analysis of the restriction patterns produced by amplified DNA coding for 16S rRNA (16S rDNA) (ARDRA) with the enzyme AluI. Partial 16S rDNA nucleotide sequences of some randomly chosen isolates confirmed the ARDRA results. Throughout the study, B. cepacia was strictly associated with maize roots, ranging from 0.6 to 3.6% of the total cultivable microflora. Biodiversity among 83 B. cepacia isolates was analyzed by the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique with two 10-mer primers. An analysis of RAPD patterns by the analysis of molecular variance method revealed a high level of intraspecific genetic diversity in this B. cepacia population. Moreover, the genetic diversity was related to divergences among maize root samplings, with microbial genetic variability markedly higher in the first stages of plant growth; in other words, the biodiversity of this rhizosphere bacterial population decreased over time.

It is often hypothesized that those organisms that are superior competitors for sparse resources fare poorly in competition for abundant resources, and vice versa. If there is indeed such a systematic trade-off, then this has important implications for the choice of bacterial strains in bioremediation and other applications. We studied seven bacterial strains that can grow on either 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate (2,4-D) or succinate as a sole source of carbon. Growth rates were measured on each substrate at both low (5 µg/ml) and high (500 µg/ml) concentrations. We used two different methods to test the significance of correlations among growth rates, a traditional method that treats each strain as an independent observation and a newer method that takes into account phylogenetic relationships between strains, thereby avoiding spurious correlations caused by a lack of statistical independence of strains. In both 2,4-D and succinate, we observed significant positive correlations between growth rates measured at high and low substrate concentrations by the traditional comparative method. No significant correlations were detected after adjusting for the phylogenetic relationships among the strains. In neither case did we observe the negative correlation expected from a trade-off between growth rates at high and low substrate levels.

Members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), found in many environments, are associated with clinical infections. Examining diverse species and strains from different environments with multilocus sequence typing, we identified >20% of 381 clinical isolates as indistinguishable from those in the environment. This finding links the natural environment with the emergence of many Bcc infections.

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