PRJNA552773
Tomato seed tissue endophytic microbiome analysis
The study was undertaken to get an estimate of the gross seed-internal bacterial diversity in tomato and to assess if spore-forming Firmicutes constituted a major seed endophyte adopting cultivation versus 16S rRNA profiling. While the cultivation based approach did not show the growth of any organisms from surface-sterilized seeds, 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 profiling revealed a high diversity of cultivation recalcitrant endophytic bacteria (CREB) with possible vertical transmission and significant roles in plant biology. Bacillus did not gform a major seed endophyte.