microorganisms Article Intracellular Bacteria in Plants: Elucidation of Abundant and Diverse Cytoplasmic Bacteria in Healthy Plant Cells Using In Vitro Cell and Callus Cultures Pious Thomas 1,*,† and Christopher M. M. Franco 2,* 1 Thomas Biotech & Cytobacts Centre for Biosciences, Amruthahalli, Bengaluru 560092, India 2 Department of Medical Biotechnology, College of Medicine & Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia * Correspondence:
[email protected] (P.T.); chris.franco@flinders.edu.au (C.M.M.F.) † Formerly Address: Division of Biotechnology, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru 560089, India. Abstract: This study was initiated to assess whether the supposedly axenic plant cell cultures har- bored any cultivation-recalcitrant endophytic bacteria (CREB). Adopting live-cell imaging with bright-field, fluorescent and confocal microscopy and bacterial 16S-rRNA gene taxonomic profiling, we report the cytoplasmic association of abundant and diverse CREBs in long-term actively main- tained callus and cell suspension cultures of different plant species. Preliminary bright-field live-cell imaging on grape cell cultures showed abundant intracellular motile micro-particles resembling bacteria, which proved uncultivable on enriched media. Bacterial probing employing DNA stains, transmission electron microscopy, and Eubacterial FISH indicated abundant and diverse cytoplas- mic bacteria. Observations on long-term maintained/freshly established callus stocks of different plant species—grapevine,