title: Plant powder teabags: a novel and practical approach to resolve culturability and diversity of rhizobacteria.
abstract: We have developed teabags packed with dehydrated plant powders, without any supplements, for preparation of plant infusions necessary to develop media for culturing rhizobacteria. These bacteria are efficiently cultivated on such plant teabag culture media, with better progressive in situ recoverability compared to standard chemically synthetic culture media. Combining various plant-based culture media and incubation conditions enabled us to resolve unique denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands that were not resolved by tested standard culture media. Based on polymerase chain reaction PCR-DGGE of 16S rDNA fingerprints and sequencing, the plant teabag culture media supported higher diversity and significant increases in the richness of endo-rhizobacteria, namely Gammaproteobacteria (Enterobacteriaceae) and predominantly Alphaproteobacteria (Rhizobiaceae). This culminated in greater retrieval of the rhizobacteria taxa associated with the plant roots. We conclude that the plant teabag culture medium by itself, without any nutritional supplements, is sufficient and efficient for recovering and mirroring the complex and diverse communities of rhizobacteria. Our message to fellow microbial ecologists is: simply dehydrate your plant canopy, teabag it and soak it to prepare your culture media, with no need for any additional supplementary nutrients.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Studies and Research Unit (ESRU), Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Sarhan
authors.affiliation: Environmental Studies and Research Unit (ESRU), Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Elhussein F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Mourad
authors.affiliation: Environmental Studies and Research Unit (ESRU), Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mervat A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hamza
authors.affiliation: Environmental Studies and Research Unit (ESRU), Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Hanan H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Youssef
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Grossbeeren/Erfurt e.V. (IGZ), Grossbeeren, Germany.
authors.forename: Ann-Christin
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Scherwinski
authors.affiliation: Regional Center for Food and Feed (RCFF), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Tahan
authors.affiliation: Environmental Studies and Research Unit (ESRU), Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fayez
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Grossbeeren/Erfurt e.V. (IGZ), Grossbeeren, Germany.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ruppel
authors.affiliation: Environmental Studies and Research Unit (ESRU), Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Nabil A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Hegazi
mesh_terms: D020561:Alphaproteobacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003470:Culture Media; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020563:Gammaproteobacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D031781:Paspalum; D028321:Plant Preparations; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology; D012230:Rhizobiaceae / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D029921:Trifolium; D003313:Zea mays / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D028321:Plant Preparations