Diversity of endophytic bacterial community inhabiting in tropical aerobic rice under aerobic and flooded condition

The role and activity of bacterial endophytes remains largely unexplored and detail insight into Indian rice agro ecosystem is still little explored. In this study, we examined the diversity of endophytic bacteria in aerobic rice (variety ARB6) under aerobic and flooded field conditions. Based on 16S rRNA gene RFLP cloning sequencing, 900 clones with 144 representatives (72 aerobic and 72 flooded) revealed majority of clones affiliated to Gammaproteobacteria (64.58%), Betaproteobacteria (9.72%), Alphaproteobacteria (17.36), Firmicutes (6.26%) and Bacteroidetes (2.08). The study suggests that the aerobic rice variety harbours plant growth promoting (PGP) genera (viz. Pantoea, Enterobacter, Paenibacillus, etc). Investigations on aerobic rice under aerobic and flooded conditions revealed high richness and diversity of endophytic bacteria under aerobic condition inferring that the endophytic bacteria are beneficial for rice growth and productivity, and hence, would be helpful in designing better strategies for rice cultivation under drought or water scarce conditions.