Abstract
Sphingomonads are taxonomically heterogeneous bacteria possessing biologically diverse features. In the present study, the taxonomic status and some biological and phenotypic characteristics of sphingomonad strains isolated from stone and pome fruit trees in Mazandaran province were determined. The 115 sphingomonad-like strains isolated formed 13 phenotypic groups among which eight were identified as sphingomonads based on their 16S rDNA sequences. A representative from each phylogroup was used in multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) employing atpD, dnaK, gap, recA, and rpoB housekeeping genes. MLSA analysis indicated that strains HM4, HM7, HM9, HM12, and HM20 belong to Sphingomonas, and the remaining strains HM5, HM16, and HM23 were members of the genus Novosphingobium. The strain HM7 was identified as Sphingomonas melonis and was capable of producing brown spot symptoms on melon fruit. The precise taxonomic position of the remaining strains, at the species level, remained unresolved. Nonetheless, strains HM4 and HM12 clustered with the group consisting of Sphingomonas sp. LK11 and Sphingomonas paucimobilis AIMST S2 at 100% bootstrap value. In the Novosphingobium clade, strains HM5 and HM23 clustered close to each other along with the possibly misidentified Sphingomonas sp. strain IC081 with high bootstrap supports. All strains produced siderophore and all but members of group HM20 induced a hypersensitive reaction on geranium leaves. However, the antibiotic sensitivity, biofilm formation, ice nucleation activity, and resistance to freezing/thawing cycles varied among the strains. This is the first comprehensive study on the taxonomy and some biological characteristics of sphingomonads associated with fruit trees in Iran.
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Abbreviations
- atpD :
-
ATP synthase subunit beta
- CAS–agar:
-
Chrome azorol S agar
- CTAB:
-
Cetyl trimethylammonium bromide
- dnaK :
-
heat-shock protein (molecular chaperone)
- gap :
-
Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase
- HR:
-
Hypersensitive reaction
- INA:
-
ice nucleation activity
- ML:
-
Maximum Likelihood
- MLSA:
-
Multi locus sequence analysis
- NA:
-
Nutrient agar
- OD:
-
Optical density
- ODc:
-
OD of the control
- PBS:
-
Phosphate buffer saline
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- Pss :
-
Pseudomonas syringae pv. Syringae
- recA :
-
DNA recombination/repair protein RecA
- SDW:
-
Sterile distilled water
- SNA:
-
Sucrose nutrient agar
- t:
-
tonnes
- TCP:
-
Tissue culture plate
- TM:
-
Tube method
- rpoB :
-
the beta subunit of RNA polymerase
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Acknowledgments
This work was partly supported by Research and Technology Office, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran.
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The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the [NCBI, GenBank] repository, [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov].
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Conceiving and supervising the work and editing the final draft of the manuscript performed by [Hamideh Mortezania and Heshmatolah Rahimian]. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Hamideh mortezania], [Valiollah Babaeizad], [Ali Barzegar] and [Ali Dehestani]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Hamideh mortezania] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Mortezania, H., Rahimian, H., Babaeizad, V. et al. Preliminary characterization and phylogeny of sphingomonads occurring on Stone and Pome Fruit Trees in Northern Iran. Biologia 76, 3811–3825 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00895-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00895-7