Diversity of Paenibacillus durus strains isolated from soil and different plant rhizospheres evaluated by ARDRA and gyrB-RFLP analysis

Strains belonging to Paenibacillus durus isolated from the rhizosphere of various grasses and from bulk soil were previously divided into five phenotypic groups (A1–A5) based on the fermentation pattern of six carbohydrates (A1: sorbitol (+), A2: dulcitol and tagatose (+), A3: starch and glycogen (+), A4: starch, glycogen and D-arabitol (+) and A5: negative for these carbohydrates). This study aimed to assess whether plant types select for specific P. durus phenotypic groups. For that purpose, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of part of genes encoding 16S rRNA (ARDRA) and DNA gyrase subunit B (gyrB-RFLP) were used to produce genetic fingerprints. ARDRA and gyrB-RFLP data were clustered together to generate a dendrogram and two main clusters were observed. Cluster I showed a predominance of strains isolated from wheat, maize and sugarcane rhizospheres. Strains isolated from maize were distributed among the five patterns of carbohydrate metabolism, while strains isolated from sugarcane showed to be predominantly able to metabolize starch and glycogen. Neither sorbitol- nor arabitol-metabolizing strains were found in cluster II, which consisted of strains isolated from soil and from all plant species used. Our results suggest that the plants influenced the diversity of P. durus in their rhizospheres.