Occurrence and location of endophytic bacteria in garden and wild strawberry

Abstract

The occurrence of bacteria in different tissues was studied using field-grown strawberries, in vitro-grown strawberries, wild strawberries, and aseptically germinated strawberry seedlings. Strawberry has a number of endophytic bacteria in its the internal tissue, most of which appear to be nonpathogenic. In the in vitro-grown strawberries, all identified isolates were in the genus Pantoea. In field-grown garden and wild strawberries the most common genera were Pantoea and Pseudomonas. Location of eubacterial inhabitants within strawberry tissue sections was studied by in situ hybridization. Bacteria were detected in lower stalks, leaf stalks, leaves, stolons, berries and aseptically germinated seedlings. The existence of bacteria in seeds and seedlings suggests that bacteria are able to move up to the generative tissue and, ultimately, to the next generation, forming a symbiosis-like chain of plant-bacteria coexistence.