Morphological and molecular characterization of bacterial endophytes from Centella asiatica leaves

BACKGROUND: Endophytes are a rich source of novel, distinct, and applicable compounds of interest in agricultural, medical, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. In this respect, they have been attracting growing interest in the past few years. Endophytes are defined as microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi which have a mutualistic relationship with their host plants without causing any harm to their host. In this study, we isolated and identified bacterial endophytes from Centella asiatica collected in Western Cape, South Africa. RESULTS: Twenty bacterial endophytes were isolated from Centella asiatica and characterized by using morphological and molecular techniques. Based on molecular traits, the isolates were identified as Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM1, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM2, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM3, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM4, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM5, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM6, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM7, Novosphingobium sp. strain SGM8, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM9, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM10, Chryseobacterium sp. strain SGM11, Enterobacter sp. strain SGM12, Enterobacter sp. strain SGM13, Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM14, Enterobacter sp. strain SGM15, Enterobacter sp. strain SGM16, Agrobacterium sp. strain SGM17, Pantoea sp. strain SGM18, Paraburkholderia sp. strain SGM19, and Pseudomonas sp. strain SGM20. Pseudomonas genus was dominant with eleven isolates. Morphological trait results showed that all isolates were gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria. CONCLUSION: According to our understanding, this study revealed the first twenty endophytic bacteria isolated from Centella asiatica growing in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Data obtained in the current study will increase the knowledge of the already existing microbial diversity associated with Centella asiatica. Further work is needed to evaluate the antioxidant and antibacterial activities in vitro and assess the growth and medicinal compounds of the identified endophytic bacteria in a laboratory scale bioreactors.