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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2001, p. 2469-2475, Vol. 67, No. 6
Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council
Canada, Montreal, Quebec,1 and Fisheries and
Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,4
Canada, and School of Civil
Engineering2 and School of
Agronomy,3 Purdue University, West LaFayette,
Indiana
Received 2 November 2000/Accepted 18 March 2001
Plant-bacterial combinations can increase contaminant degradation
in the rhizosphere, but the role played by indigenous root-associated bacteria during plant growth in contaminated soils is unclear. The
purpose of this study was to determine if plants had the ability to
selectively enhance the prevalence of endophytes containing pollutant
catabolic genes in unrelated environments contaminated with different
pollutants. At petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites, two genes
encoding hydrocarbon degradation, alkane monooxygenase (alkB) and naphthalene dioxygenase (ndoB), were
two and four times more prevalent in bacteria extracted from the root
interior (endophytic) than from the bulk soil and sediment,
respectively. In field sites contaminated with nitroaromatics, two
genes encoding nitrotoluene degradation, 2-nitrotoluene reductase
(ntdAa) and nitrotoluene monooxygenase (ntnM),
were 7 to 14 times more prevalent in endophytic bacteria. The addition
of petroleum to sediment doubled the prevalence of
ndoB-positive endophytes in Scirpus pungens,
indicating that the numbers of endophytes containing catabolic
genotypes were dependent on the presence and concentration of
contaminants. Similarly, the numbers of alkB- or
ndoB-positive endophytes in Festuca arundinacea were correlated with the concentration of creosote in the soil but not
with the numbers of alkB- or ndoB-positive
bacteria in the bulk soil. Our results indicate that the enrichment of
catabolic genotypes in the root interior is both plant and contaminant dependent.
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.6.2469-2475.2001
Selection of Specific Endophytic Bacterial
Genotypes by Plants in Response to Soil Contamination
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biotechnology
Research Institute, National Research Council Canada, 6100 Royalmount Ave., Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Phone: 514-496-6182. Fax: 514-496-6265. E-mail: charles.greer{at}nrc.ca.
Present address: Department of Biology, University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Canada.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2001, p. 2469-2475, Vol. 67, No. 6
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.6.2469-2475.2001
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