Study of endophytic bacteria within plant seeds is very essential and meaningful on account of their heritability and versatility. This study investigated Bacillus bacterial communities within the seeds of four commercial tomato varieties, by 16S rRNA gene PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism). Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the 22 representative isolates belonged to five species of genus Bacillus and the bacterial compositions showed remarkable differences among tomato varieties. Isolates exhibited multiple plant growth promoting (PGP) traits: 37 % of indole-3-acetic acid production; 37 % of phosphate solubilization; 24 % of siderophores production; 85 % of potential nitrogen fixation and 6 % of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity. Isolate HYT-12-1 was shown to have highest ACC deaminase activity (112.02 nmol α-ketobutyrate mg⁻¹ protein h⁻¹) among the five ACC deamiase producing strains. 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that the isolate HYT-12-1 shared the highest sequence similarity (100 %) with B. subtilis. PGP experiments under gnotobiotic and greenhouse conditions revealed the ability of strain HYT-12-1 to enhance the growth of tomato seedlings. This is the first study to describe endophytic Bacillus communities within tomato seeds, and the results suggest that B. subtilis strain HYT-12-1 would have a great potential for industrial application as biofertilizer in the future.

Bacillus subtilis strain B154, isolated from Agaricus bisporus mushroom 12 compost infected by red bread mold, exhibited antagonistic activities against Neurospora 13 sitophila. Antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi was also observed. The 14 maximum antifungal activity was reached during the stationary phase. This antifungal 15 activity was stable over a wide pH and temperature range, and was not affected by 16proteases. Assay of antifungal activity in vitro indicated that a purified antifungal 17 substance could strongly inhibit mycelia growth and spore germination of N. sitophila. In 18 addition, treatment with strain B154 in A. bisporus mushroom compost infected with N. 19 sitophila significantly increased the yield of bisporus mushrooms. Ultraviolet scan 20 spectroscopy, tricine sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis 21 (tricine-SDS-PAGE), matrix-associated laser desorption ionization time of flight mass 22 spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry 23 (ESI-MS/MS) analyses revealed a molecular weight consistent with 1498.7633 Da. The 24 antifungal compound might belong to a new type of lipopeptide fengycin. 25

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An aerobic, Gram-negative, yellow-pigmented bacterial strain, designated 0533 T , was isolated from frozen soil from the China No. 1 glacier. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence demonstrated that strain 0533 T was a member of the genus Flavobacterium and exhibited 97.1-98.7 % 16S rRNA sequence similarity with its nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Strain 0533 T exhibited phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics common to the genus Flavobacterium: menaquinone-6 (MK-6) was the predominant quinone and iso-C 15 : 0 , C 17 : 1 v6c, anteiso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 15 : 0 3-OH, C 15 : 1 v6c, iso-C 16 : 0 3-OH, summed feature 3 (comprising C 16 : 1 v7c and/or C 16 : 1 v6c), iso-C 15 : 1 G and iso-C 17 : 0 3-OH were the major fatty acids (.5 %). The DNA G+C content was 32.5 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic data, a novel species, Flavobacterium sinopsychrotolerans sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is 0533 T (5CGMCC 1.8704 T 5JCM 16398 T ).

A novel Gram-negative, orange-pigmented, slightly halophilic, rod-shaped bacterium, strain T30 T , was isolated from sediment from the South China Sea. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain T30T was a member of the genus Erythrobacter, sharing highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with Erythrobacter aquimaris JCM 12189 T (99.5 %) and Erythrobacter vulgaris DSM 17792 T (99.0 %). Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain T30 T and closely related strains of Erythrobacter species ranged from 14.5 to 56.9 %.The isolate lacked bacteriochlorophyll a and contained ubiquinone-10 as the predominant respiratory lipoquinone. The major fatty acids of this strain were C 18 : 1 v7c (38.2 %) and C 16 : 1 v7c /C 16 : 1 v6c (17.4 %). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol. The DNA G+C content of strain T30 T was 59.5 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic data, a novel species, Erythrobacter nanhaisediminis sp. nov., is proposed; the type strain is T30 T (5CGMCC 1.7715 T 5JCM 16125 T ).