LAUSR

Abstract Medicinal plants are potential hosts to surplus advantageous microorganisms including bacteria, fungi and yeast. Among them endophytic bacteria are the most prospective source of bioactive compounds which are of immense importance to wide range of areas like medicine, agriculture and industry. In the present study, leaf and stem explants of medicinal plant Tinospora cordifolia were used for isolation, identification and characterization of bacterial endophytes via morphological, biochemical and molecular examinations. Thirty-eight different endophytic bacterial isolates were screened from sample explants of T. cordifolia. The characterization of bacterial isolates was done by morphological and biochemical methods according to Bergey's manual of systematic Bacteriology. 16S rDNA gene sequence similarity-based method was used further for molecular identification of isolated bacterial strains. The isolated species were from different bacterial genera i.e. Bacillus, Aneurinibacillus and Pseudomonas. Out of thirty-eight bacterial isolates, twenty bacterial species were acquired from leaf and eighteen from stem explants. This investigation revealed that both stem and leaf of medicinal plant T. cordifolia are excellent reservoir for bacterial endophytes. The screened endophytic bacterial isolates offer the scope to exploit them further as potential source of novel bioactive metabolites and prospective biopesticides and biofertilizers.