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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2003, p. 5603-5608, Vol. 69, No. 9
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.9.5603-5608.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Isolation and Identification of Actinobacteria from Surface-Sterilized Wheat Roots

Justin T. Coombs and Christopher M. M. Franco^*

Department of Medical Biotechnology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042, Australia

Received 26 December 2002/ Accepted 16 June 2003

This is the first report of filamentous actinobacteria isolated from surface-sterilized root tissues of healthy wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.). Wheat roots from a range of sites across South Australia were used as the source material for the isolation of the endophytic actinobacteria. Roots were surface-sterilized by using ethanol and sodium hypochlorite prior to the isolation of the actinobacteria. Forty-nine of these isolates were identified by using 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequencing and found to belong to a small group of actinobacterial genera including Streptomyces, Microbispora, Micromonospora, and Nocardiodes spp. Many of the Streptomyces spp. were found to be similar, on the basis of their 16S rDNA gene sequence, to Streptomyces spp. that had been isolated from potato scabs. In particular, several isolates exhibited high 16S rDNA gene sequence homology to Streptomyces caviscabies and S. setonii. None of these isolates, nor the S. caviscabies and S. setonii type strains, were found to carry the nec1 pathogenicity-associated gene or to produce the toxin thaxtomin, indicating that they were nonpathogenic. These isolates were recovered from healthy plants over a range of geographically and temporally isolated sampling events and constitute an important plant-microbe interaction.

Present address: Plant Pathology Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

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