Isolation and Identification of a novel Endophyte from a plant Amaranthus spinosus

Abstract

A B S T R A C T A total number of 536 bacterial and fungal endophytes were isolated from root, stem and leaves of the plant Amaranthus spinosus. Roots supported more number of bacterial endophytes than either stem or leaves whereas stem supported more number of fungal endophytes than either roots or leaves. The plant harbored more of gram negative compared to gram positive bacterial endophytes. The fungal endophytes isolated from root, stem and leaves of the plant Amaranthus spinosus revealed the presence of Penincillum, Aspergillus Cladosporium, Phoma, Bipolaris and Fusarium spps. All the isolated fungal endophytes belonged to the class hypomycetes. Dominant fungal endophyte was Cladosporium spp. which was found in all the plant parts studied. Roots of the plant possessed maximum nitrogen fixers followed by stem and leaves. A novel bacterial endophyte Exiguobacterium profundum strain N4 was isolated from root of the selected plant. 62.75% of the bacterial endophytes isolated from the plant Amaranthus spinosus were able to fix nitrogen whereas 45.10% were able to soluibilize phosphorous. The phosphate solubilization efficiency was found to be highest for the fungal genera Aspergillus. K e y w o r d s Exiguobacterium profundum strain N4, Amaranthus spinosus, Penincillum, Aspergillus, Cladosporium spps.