Endophytic actinomycetes from spontaneous plants of Algerian Sahara: indole-3-acetic acid production and tomato plants growth promoting activity.

Twenty-seven endophytic actinomycete strains were isolated from five spontaneous plants well adapted to the poor sandy soil and arid climatic conditions of the Algerian Sahara. Morphological and chemotaxonomical analysis indicated that twenty-two isolates belonged to the Streptomyces genus and the remaining five were non-Streptomyces. All endophytic strains were screened for their ability to produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in vitro on a chemically defined medium. Eighteen strains were able to produce IAA and the maximum production occurred with the Streptomyces sp. PT2 strain. The IAA produced was further extracted, partially purified and confirmed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis. The 16S rDNA sequence analysis and phylogenetic studies indicated that strain PT2 was closely related to Streptomyces enissocaecilis NRRL B 16365(T), Streptomyces rochei NBRC 12908(T) and Streptomyces plicatus NBRC 13071(T), with 99.52 % similarity. The production of IAA was affected by cultural conditions such as temperature, pH, incubation period and L-tryptophan concentration. The highest level of IAA production (127 μg/ml) was obtained by cultivating the Streptomyces sp. PT2 strain in yeast extract-tryptone broth supplemented with 5 mg L-tryptophan/ml at pH 7 and incubated on a rotary shaker (200 rpm) at 30 °C for 5 days. Twenty-four-hour treatment of tomato cv. Marmande seeds with the supernatant culture of Streptomyces sp. PT2 that contained the crude IAA showed the maximum effect in promoting seed germination and root elongation.