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Impact of transgenic Bt-cotton on the diversity of pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs

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Abstract

Pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFMs) are one of the beneficial proteobacteria commonly found in phyllosphere, rhizosphere and as endophytes in cotton. To assess the impact of transgenic Bt-cotton on changes in the diversity and community profile of PPFMs by comparing with its non-transgenic cotton, a polyphasic approach including differential carbon-substrate utilization profiling and DNA fingerprinting techniques like ARDRA, RISA, BOX-PCR and ERIC-PCR were studied. PPFMs from phyllosphere, rhizoplane and internal tissues of the stem of both Bt-cotton and non-Bt-cotton were isolated and analysed in this study. All the results suggested that the diversity richness of PPFMs present in the phyllosphere, rhizoplane and internal tissues did not differ between Bt- and non-Bt-cotton. In this study, there was no evidence to indicate any adverse effects of Bt-cotton on the diversity of plant-associated methylobacteria.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Dr. T. Sa, Chungbuk National University, Republic of Korea and Dr. P. Jourand, Campus International de Baillarguet, France for providing type strains of Methylobacterium species. We are also thankful to Natalie Maricic, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA for reviewing and valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641 003, India

    D. Balachandar, P. Raja & SP. Sundaram

  2. Bharathidhasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620 023, India

    K. Nirmala

  3. Hindusthan College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, 641 028, India

    T. R. Rithyl

Authors
  1. D. Balachandar
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  2. P. Raja
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  3. K. Nirmala
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  4. T. R. Rithyl
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  5. SP. Sundaram
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to SP. Sundaram.

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Balachandar, D., Raja, P., Nirmala, K. et al. Impact of transgenic Bt-cotton on the diversity of pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 24, 2087–2095 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-008-9713-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-008-9713-7

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