Isolation, Identification, and Characterization of Endophytic Bacteria from Medicinally Valuable Mirabilis jalapa L.

This study is to isolate and identify the endophytic bacteria from Mirabilis jalapa L. and evaluate the enzyme production by these isolates. Two distinct bacteria were isolated from the tuber referred to as UCMJ1 and UCMJ2. UCMJ1 isolate formed whitish-yellow opaque colonies and were Gram-negative, motile, rod-shaped bacteria without endospore whereas UCMJ2 isolate formed translucent colonies, and were rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-endosporic motile bacteria. The sequence obtained after 16S rRNA gene sequencing of both the strains were compared with corresponding sequences of related organisms retrieved from the GenBank database with the BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) algorithm for identifying the isolated strains. The isolates UCMJ1 and UCMJ2 were, thus specified as Enterobacter mori and Pseudomonas entomophila respectively. On evaluation for their possible hydrolytic enzyme activity for industrially valuable enzymes including protease, xylanase, cellulase, amylase, and lipase, P. entomophila had shown prominent activity for the enzyme lipase. The present study forms the first report on the isolation of lipase-producing P. entomophila as an endophyte from M. jalapa L. root tuber.