In vitro efficacy of endophytic bacteria against Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum causing soft rot disease in banana

The study was carried out to evaluate the endophytic bacteria isolated from banana leaf, pseudostem and roots against banana soft rot pathogen. Among the twenty endophytic bacteria tested, strain EBV2 showed maximum inhibitory activity and recorded with 660.18 mm2 of mean inhibition zone. This effective endophytic strain was further characterized based on cultural, biochemical and molecular techniques. The culture characters showed circular, smooth/powdery form, creamy colour with wavy serrated margins. The biochemical characterization showed positive reaction for gram’s staining, catalase test, citrate utilization test and growth in 5% NaCl and negative reaction for oxidase, KOH, indole and pigment production test and characterized the effective strain EBV2 as Bacillus sp. The PCR based molecular characterization using 16S rRNA universal primer and partial sequencing confirmed the effective strain EBV2 as Bacillus subtilis.