Colonization and growth promotion characteristics of Enterobacter sp. and Herbaspirillum sp. on Brassica oleracea

We investigated the effects of inoculating a dicot plant, Brassica oleracea , with nitrogen-fixing endophytic bacteria isolated from monocots. The bacteria used were Enterobacter sp. strain 35 isolated from sugarcane and Herbaspirillum sp. strain B501 isolated from wild rice. Under glasshouse conditions, B. oleracea inoculated with strain 35 had a significantly greater fresh weight than uninoculated plants, and the fresh weight of plants inoculated with strain B501 tended to be higher than that of uninoculated plants. We conducted a laboratory-scale experiment to confirm the above results and to investigate the colonization and nitrogen-fixing abilities of these bacteria. Plants inoculated with Enterobacter sp. strain 35-1, a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled strain derived from strain 35, had larger bacterial populations and greater acetylene reduction activity than those inoculated with Herbaspirillum sp. strain B501 gfp 1. Strain 35-1 colonized the intercellular spaces and the junctions of the lateral roots with the parent root. The results indicated that isolates from monocots can successfully colonize B. oleracea (a dicot) and promote plant growth.