Illumina-Based Sequencing Analysis Directed Selection for Actinobacterial Probiotic Candidates for Banana Plants

As potential probiotic candidates, plant vertically transmitted actinobacteria are beneficial to growth and health of host plants. New methods to isolate the actinobacterial taxa with low growth rates should be developed. Based on the actinobacterial population information, the probiotic actinobacterial taxa could be directly isolated from healthy banana shoot tips. However, actinobacterial DNAs with high GC contents could bias estimates of actinobacteria by PCR. In the study, two amplicon sequencing strategies were adopted to elucidate the endophytic actinobacterial community of banana plants. More than 92.5% bacterial OTUs were affiliated with actinobacteria by these two strategies, and total 14,289 actinobacterial OTUs with above 97% similarity were detected in banana shoot tips. Although the libraries generated by the two strategies differed in the abundance of some genera, Mycobacterium and Nocardia dominated both libraries and most actinobacterial taxa were overlapped. Higher phylogenetic resolution actinobacteriome of banana plants was successfully established. Based on the endophytic actinobacterial community information, the streptomycetes were isolated from shoot tips. Pot experiments illustrated that the strain could promote banana plantlet growth and elevate resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (FOC) under FOC infested soils. The results suggested that the selection for probiotic agents based on actinobacteriome analysis is reliable and feasible compared with present greenhouse selection.