High-Level Culturability of Epiphytic Bacteria and Frequency of Biosurfactant Producers on Leaves

Abstract

The importance of biosurfactant production to the bacteria that live on waxy leaf surfaces as well as their ability to be accurately assessed using culture-based methodologies was determined by interrogating epiphytic populations by both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. Biosurfactant production was much more frequently observed in cultured communities on leaves than in other nearby habitats, such as soil and water, suggesting that this trait is important to life on a leaf by altering either the leaf itself or the interaction of bacteria with water. While pseudomonads were the most common biosurfactant producers isolated, this habitat also selects for taxa, such as Chryseobacterium, for which this trait was previously unrecognized. The finding that most epiphytic bacterial taxa were culturable validates strategies using more classical culturing methodologies for their study in this habitat.