diversity Article Isolation and Identification of Endophytic Bacteria from Mycorrhizal Tissues of Terrestrial Orchids from Southern Chile Héctor Herrera 1 , Tedy Sanhueza 1, AlžbˇetaNovotná 2, Trevor C. Charles 3 and Cesar Arriagada 1,* 1 Laboratorio de Biorremediación, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales, Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de La Frontera, 4811230 Temuco, Chile;
[email protected] (H.H.);
[email protected] (T.S.) 2 Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005 Ceskˇ é Budˇejovice,Czech Republic;
[email protected] 3 Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +56-045-232-5635; Fax: +56-045-234-1467 Received: 24 December 2019; Accepted: 24 January 2020; Published: 30 January 2020 Abstract: Endophytic bacteria are relevant symbionts that contribute to plant growth and development. However, the diversity of bacteria associated with the roots of terrestrial orchids colonizing Andean ecosystems is limited. This study identifies and examines the capabilities of endophytic bacteria associated with peloton-containing roots of six terrestrial orchid species from southern Chile. To achieve our goals, we placed superficially disinfected root fragments harboring pelotons on oatmeal agar (OMA) with no antibiotic addition and cultured them until the bacteria appeared. Subsequently, they were purified and identified using molecular tools and examined for plant growth metabolites production and antifungal activity. In total, 168 bacterial strains were isolated and assigned to 8 OTUs. The orders Pseudomonadales, Burkholderiales, and Xanthomonadales of phylum Proteobacteria were the most frequent. The orders Bacillales and Flavobacteriales of the phylla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were also obtained.