Interaction between plants and microbes


     Methylobacterium species are considered as important bacteria residing on plant surface. They are a member of methylotrophs, that can utilize one-carbon compounds like methanol as a sole carbon source. The reason of the predomination of the species on plant surface is the emission of methanol from plants. We isolated and characterized Methylobacterium species from a moss, Racomitrium japnoicum, which is utilized for roof greening. The isolates could strongly promote the growth of the moss. Furthermore we isolated many novel species from many samples of plants. As a strategy for selecting novel species, we utilized whole-cell mass spectrometry with MALDI-TOF/MS. These results will be soon published.
      Now we are focusing on the predomination mechanism. It is not only that they can utilize methanol. There is a unique and interesting phenomenon that we firstly found, and the details will also be published soon.
     In addition we are interested in their ability to promote plant growth. Every year we grow rice and barley in the field.

Students from abroad are welcome to contact us.

Akio TANI
atani###rib.okayama-u.ac.jp