Isolation and Characterisation of Endophytic Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in Sugarcane

Endophytic nitrogen fixing bacteria were isolated from the leaves, stems and roots of industrial variety (cv. U-Thong 3; UT3), wild and chewing sugarcane plants grown for 6 weeks in nitrogen (N)-free sand. Eighty nine isolates of endophytic bacteria were obtained on N-free agar. An acetylene reduction assay (ARA) detected nitrogenase activity in all 89 isolates. Three isolates from the chewing (C2HL2, C7HL1 and C34MR1) sugarcane and one isolate from the industrial sugarcane (UT3R1) varieties were characterised, and their responses to different yeast extract concentrations were investigated. Three different responses in nitrogenase activity were observed. Isolates C2HL2 and C7HL1 exhibited major increases with the addition of 0.005% yeast extract, C34MR1 exhibited no response, and UT3R1 exhibited a significant decrease in nitrogenase activity with 0.005% yeast extract. In all the isolates, nitrogenase activity decreased with further increase of the yeast extract to 0.05%. The highest nitrogenase activity was observed in isolates C2HL2 and C7HL1, which had 16S rRNA gene sequences that were closely related to Novosphingobium sediminicola and Ochrobactrum intermedium, respectively.