This study, framed in two different phases, studied the plant-growth promotion and the induction of systemic resistance in groundnut by Methylobacterium. Seed imbibition with Methylobacterium sp. increased germination by 19.5% compared with controls. Combined inoculation of Methylobacterium sp. with Rhizobium sp. also significantly increased plant growth, nodulation, and yield attributes in groundnut compared with individual inoculation of Rhizobium sp. Methylobacterium sp. challenge-inoculated with Aspergillus niger/Sclerotium rolfsii in groundnut significantly enhanced germination percentage and seedling vigour and showed increased phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), beta-1,3-glucanase, and peroxidase (PO) activities. Under pot-culture conditions, in Methylobacterium sp. seed-treated groundnut plants challenge-inoculated with A. niger/S. rolfsii through foliar sprays on day 30, the activities of enzymes PO, PAL, and beta-1,3-glucanase increased constantly from 24 to 72 hours, after which decreased activity was noted. Five isozymes of polyphenol oxidase and PO could be detected in Methylobacterium-treated plants challenged with A. niger/S. rolfsii. Induced systemic resistance activity in groundnut against rot pathogens in response to methylotrophic bacteria suggests the possibility that pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophic bacteria might be used as a means of biologic disease control.

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Two isolates from rhizosphere soil of cotton, designated Gh-67T and Gh-48T, which produced large amounts of extracellular polysaccharide and possessed plant-growth-promoting traits, were characterized phenotypically and genotypically. The strains were Gram-negative and cells were non-motile rods that grew optimally at 28 °C and grew between pH 4 and 7. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of strains Gh-67T and Gh-48T placed them in the genus Mucilaginibacter, with pairwise sequence similarity between them and type strains from related genera ranging from 93.9 to 98.2 %. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH). The strains contained MK-7 as the major isoprenoid quinone. The DNA G+C contents of strains Gh-67T and Gh-48T were 46.7 and 44.2 mol%, respectively. The low DNA–DNA hybridization value (18 %) and a number of phenotypic differences between strains Gh-48T and Gh-67T indicated that they represent two separate species. Results of phenotypic, phylogenetic and genotypic analysis revealed that the strains were separated from the species of Mucilaginibacter described to date. Therefore, strains Gh-67T and Gh-48T represent novel species of Mucilaginibacter, for which we propose the names Mucilaginibacter gossypii sp. nov. (type strain Gh-67T =NCIMB 14470T =KCTC 22380T) and Mucilaginibacter gossypiicola sp. nov. (type strain Gh-48T =NCIMB 14471T =KCTC 22379T).

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