bacterial endophytes in banana raw sequence reads. plant metagenome

This project was undertaken to assess the extent of bacterial diversity in the shoot tip tissue of banana cv. Grand Naine. The study was initiated based on the background microscopic documentation that the shoot tip tissue in banana and the in vitro cultures derived aseptically from the shoot tissues harbored abundant bacterial endophytes in uncultivable form. With 16S rRNA metagenome profiling, we elucidate the association of phylogenetically diverse organisms in the shoot tip tissue of banana field suckers gathered aseptically. Proteobacteria formed the predominant phylum succeeded by Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Cyanobacteria and minor shares of 14 phyla including several candidate phyla besides domain Euarcheota. The choice of DNA extraction kit significantly influenced the metagenome diversity. Contrary to the general impression of endophytes being predominantly root colonizers, this molecular analysis has revealed vast uncultivable bacterial diversity in banana shoot-tips.