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Detection and Characterization of Endobacteria in the Fungal Endophyte Piriformospora indica

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Modern Tools and Techniques to Understand Microbes

Abstract

The nonpathogenic Alphaproteobacterium Rhizobium radiobacter (syn. Agrobacterium tumefaciens) (RrF4) is a subculture of the endobacterium R. radiobacter, which is intricately associated with its host, the beneficial plant-colonizing fungal basidiomycete Piriformospora indica. RrF4 is genetically very similar to the well-studied plant pathogenic R. radiobacter biovar I strain C58 (genomovar G8). Highly similar genetic content of RrF4 and C58 denotes the high potential for RrF4 to directly interact with plants. The failure to cure P. indica from its endobacterium still hampers a conclusive prediction of the bacterium’s extended role in the interaction of the fungus with a broad spectrum of host plants. However, beneficial activities shown in cereals and the Brassicaceae Arabidopsis thaliana were hardly distinguishable when induced either by RrF4 or P. indica. We discuss here the various strategies employed to detect, characterize, and eventually elucidate the endobacterium’s role in the tripartite symbiosis with its fungal host and a plant.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG) to KHK (KO 1208/24-1) and PK (DFG KA 875/8-1). We acknowledge technical assistance by the Bioinformatics Core Facility at JLU Giessen and access to resources supported by the Bundesministerium fﺰr Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) grant FKZ 031A533 to AG within the de.NBI network.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Microbiology, Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Stefanie P. Glaeser & Peter Kämpfer

  2. Institute of Phytopathology, Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Ibrahim Alabid, Huijuan Guo, Neelendra Kumar, Jafargholi Imani & Karl-Heinz Kogel

  3. Imaging Unit—Biomedical Research Centre Seltersberg, Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Martin Hardt

  4. Centre for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

    Tobias Busche & Jörn Kalinowski

  5. Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Jochen Blom & Alexander Goesmann

  6. Research Unit Microbe-Plant Interactions, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Michael Rothballer & Anton Hartmann

Authors
  1. Stefanie P. Glaeser
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  2. Ibrahim Alabid
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  3. Huijuan Guo
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  4. Neelendra Kumar
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  5. Jafargholi Imani
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  7. Martin Hardt
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  8. Tobias Busche
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  9. Jörn Kalinowski
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  14. Karl-Heinz Kogel
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Correspondence to Karl-Heinz Kogel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ajit Varma

  2. ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM), Kusmaur, Mau Nath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Arun Kumar Sharma

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Glaeser, S.P. et al. (2017). Detection and Characterization of Endobacteria in the Fungal Endophyte Piriformospora indica . In: Varma, A., Sharma, A. (eds) Modern Tools and Techniques to Understand Microbes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49197-4_15

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