[Monitoring of the chitinolytic microbial complex of the phylloplane]

A comprehensive study of chitinolytic microbial complexes of the phylloplane from cultured and forest plants has been conducted. An increase of the number and biomass of metabolically active cells of the representatives of the domain Bacteria and a decrease in fungal biomass in the experimental microcosms have been shown to occur after the introduction of chitin. The characteristic features of the taxonomic structure of metabolically active chitinolytic complexes of the phylloplane of the plants studied have been elucidated. Representatives of the phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Verrucomicrobia have been shown to play important roles in the chitinolytic complexes of green leaf samples, while mycelial actinobacteria of the phylum Actinobacyteria played a similar role in needles of coniferous trees. A collection of chitinolytic microorganism cultures isolated from the phylloplane of different plant species has been created.