Photo credit: Stephane Compant, University of Reims, France

Burkholderia phytofirmans strain PsJN T belongs to the ß-Proteobacteria (Sessitsch et al., 2005) and was isolated surface-sterilized Glomus vesiculiferum -infected onion roots (Nowak et al., 1997). Other strains belonging to this species have been isolated from soils and rhizospheres.

Cells are gram-negative, non-sporulating rods that grows in the presence of various sugars. The strain does not produce nitrate or nitrite. PsJN produces ACC deaminase activity probably contributing to the plant growth promoting abilities of the strain.   It produces the quorum signaling compound 3-hydroxy-C8-homoserine lactone. Strain PsJN colonizes varios plants endophytically and in the rhizospheres and plant growth promotion have been reported with various plants such as potato, tomato, grapevine (Frommel et al., 1991; Nowak et al., 1995; Pillay and Nowak, 1997; Bensalim et al., 1998; Ait Barka et al., 2000; 2002; Compant et al., 2005).

References:

Ait Barka, E., Belarbi, A., Hachet, C., Nowak, J. & Audran, J.C. (2000). Enhancement of in vitro growth and resistance to gray mould of Vitis vinifera co-cultured with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 186, 91-95.

Ait Barka, E., Gognies, S., Nowak, J., Audran, J. & Belarbi, A. (2002). Inhibitory effect of endophyte bacteria on Botrytis cinerea and its influence to promote grapevine growth. Biol. Control 24,135-142.

Bensalim, S., Nowak, J. & Asiedu, S.K. (1998). Temperature and pseudomonad bacterium effects on in vitro and ex vitro performance of 18 clones of potato. Am. J. Potato Res. 75,145-152.

Compant, S., Reiter, B., Sessitsch, A., Nowak, J., Clement, C., & Ait Barka, E. (2005). Endophytic colonization of Vitis vinifera L. by a plant growth-promoting bacterium, Burkholderia sp . strain PsJN. Appl. Environ. Microbiol . 71, 1685-1693.

Frommel, M.I., Nowak, J. & Lazarovits, G. (1991). Growth enhancement and developmental modifications of in vitro grown potato ( Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum ) as affected by a nonfluorescent Pseudomonas sp. Plant Physiol. 96, 928-936.

Nowak, J., Asiedu, S.K., Bensalim, S., Richards, J., Stewart, A., Smith, C., Stevens, D. & Sturz, A.V. (1997). From laboratory to applications: challenges and progress with in vitro dal cultures of potato and beneficial bacteria. In Pathogen and microbial contamination management in micropropagation , pp. 321-329. Edited by A. Cassells. Dortrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Nowak, J. (1998). Benefits of in vitro "biotization" of plant tissue cultures with microbial inoculants. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. Plant 34,122-130.

Pillay, V.K. & Nowak, J. (1997). Inoculum density, temperature and genotype effects on epiphytic and endophytic colonization and in vitro growth promotion of tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum L.) by a pseudomonad bacterium. Can. J. Microbiol. 43,354-361.

Sessitsch, A., Coenye, T., Sturz, A.V., Vandamme, P., Ait Barka, E., Salles, J.F., van Elsas, J.D., Faure, D., Reiter, B., Glick, B.R., Wang-Pruski, G., and Nowak, J. (2005). Burkholderia phytofirmans sp. nov., a novel plant-associated bacterium with plant-beneficial properties. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 55, 1187-1192.