title: Evaluation of endophytic colonization of Citrus sinensis and Catharanthus roseus seedlings by endophytic bacteria.
abstract: Over the last few years, the endophytic bacterial community associated with citrus has been studied as an important component interacting with Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC). This bacterium may also colonize some model plants, such as Catharanthus roseus and Nicotiana clevelandii. In the present study, we compared the endophytic colonization of Citrus sinensis and Catharanthus roseus using the endophytic bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae. We chose an appropriate strain, K. pneumoniae 342 (Kp342), labeled with the GFP gene. This strain was inoculated onto seedlings of C. sinensis and C. roseus. The isolation frequency was determined one week after the inoculation and the endophytic colonization of K. pneumoniae was observed using fluorescence microscopy. Although the endophytic bacterium was more frequently isolated from C. roseus than from C. sinensis, the colonization profiles for both host plants were similar, suggesting that C. roseus could be used as a model plant to study the interaction between endophytic bacteria and X. fastidiosa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo Teixeira
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Lacava
authors.forename: Welington Luiz
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: João Lúcio
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Azevedo
mesh_terms: D030008:Catharanthus / Q000382:microbiology*; D032084:Citrus sinensis / Q000382:microbiology*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D036226:Seedlings / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins