Bacillus subtilis Subspecies virginiana, a New Subspecies of Antitermitic Compound-Producing Endophytic Bacteria Isolated From Juniperus virginiana

Abstract

Termites are worldwide pests causing considerable damage to agriculture, forestry and buildings. Although physical and chemical methods have been tried to eliminate termite populations, they have the limitations such as low effectiveness, high-toxicity residue, environmentally harmful and high cost. Therefore, it has attracted much attention to develop highly effective, low-toxic, long residual period, environmentally friendly and low-cost termiticidals. Here, we report the characterization and antitermitic activities of a new antitermitic compound-producing endophytic bacterium HUB-I-47 isolated from eastern red-cedar, Juniperus virginiana L. The morphological, physiochemical characteristics of strain HUB-I-47 and its 16S rDNA sequences, and the antitermitic compound were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were studied. We found that the morphology of HUB-I-47 was very similar to that of Bacillus subtilis but presented some differences in shape and cell size. Growth evaluation showed that the lowest, highest, and optimum growth temperatures of HUB-I-47 were 12, 47, and 31 degrees C, respectively, which were different from those of reference strains. The 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed a high similarity of 99% to those of B. subtilis. Based on these analyses, we named strain HUB-I-47 as B. subtilis subsp. virginiana D. P. Zhou, K. Zhao, J. Liu et W. X. Ping, subsp. nov. This is the first report on the analysis of antitermitic compounds from endophytic bacteria. Our study identified a new resource of antitermitic compounds through endophytic bacteria fermentation.

Juniperus macrocarpa endophytes isolated on standard‐ and plant extract supplemented-culture media - and evaluation of their antimicrobial activity

“…Many Juniperus species, for instance, J. recurva, J. virginiana, J. communis, J. excelsa, and J. procera, have been investigated in terms of their endophytes (Kour et al 2008;Zhao et al 2011;Ellsworth et al 2013 Elhariry 2016). Since the host plant species affect the diversity of endophytes, none of the fungal isolates identified in this study has been previously reported, with the exception of Penicillium sp.…”

“…(Gherbawy & Elharir 2016). Soltani et al (2016) and Zhao et al (2011) investigated the endophytic bacteria of J. communis and J. virginiana, respectively. Zhao et al (2011) reported a new subspecies, Bacillus subtilis subspecies virginiana, from J. virginiana.…”

“…Soltani et al (2016) and Zhao et al (2011) investigated the endophytic bacteria of J. communis and J. virginiana, respectively. Zhao et al (2011) reported a new subspecies, Bacillus subtilis subspecies virginiana, from J. virginiana. On the other hand, our study contributed to the understanding of the biodiversity of both endophytic bacteria and fungi associated with J. macrocarpa from Turkey.…”

Klebsiella variicola, a nitrogen fixing activity endophytic bacterium isolated from the gut of Odontotermes formosanu

“…The 16S rDNA sequences were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primer pairs 5'-AGAGTTTGATCATGGCTCAG-3' and 5'-ACGGTTACCTTGTTACGACTT-3'. The PCR reactions were carried out as previously described (Zhao et al, 2011). The obtained sequences were submitted to GenBank for homology search with BLAST (http://rdp.cme.msu.edu and http//ncbi.nim.nih.gov).…”