Investigation of the presence of endofungal bacteria in Zygomycetes isolated from soil samples

The dynamic interactions between fungi and bacteria that coexist by creating complex communities are important for agriculture and human health. In our study, it was aimed to identify the endofungal bacteria in the hyphae of some Zygomycetes, which are especially common as plant pathogens in the agricultural lands of I. zmir provincial districts. For this aim, 237 Zygomycetes were isolated from soil samples taken from 237 different agricultural areas. The presence of endofungal bacteria in all fungal isolates was investigated by fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with ribosomal RNA targeted oligonucleotide probes. Twenty Zygomycete isolates, in which we observed bacterial cells in the fungal hyphae with fluorescence microscopy and subsequently performed endofungal bacteria isolation, were identified pheno- and genotypically. Molecular identification of the endofungal bacteria was conducted by analysis of the sequences obtained after the total DNA amplification with primers specific for 16S rRNA gene regions belonging to the fungal metagenome. Alcaligenes faecalis (11), Bacillus circulans (1), Bacillus thuringiensis (3), Bacillus cereus (1), Klebsiella pneumoniae (2), Leucobacter aridicolis (1) and Serratia marcescens (1) were identified as endofungal bacterial species. The first endofungal presence of Alcaligenes faecalis, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus cereus and Leucobacter aridicolis species is reported.