Isolation and molecular detection of Arthrobacter species grown on the surface of date palm tissue culture media

This study was aimed to found out the type of bacterial species grown on the surface of date palm tissue culture media. Shoot tips of date palm (‘Barhi’) were cultured on MS media supplemented with various combinations of hormones. During growth an infection appeared in all cultures which were gray in color. Primary identification proved a bacterial infection due to its color and appearance. One type of bacterial species was isolated from agar surface which exhibited many characteristics for the genus Arthrobacter. The main characteristics of these isolates were aerobic, Gram-positive, catalase-positive, spore forming non-motile. Antibiotic sensitivity test showed that the isolate was sensitive to cipro floxacin, Trimethoprim and Amikacin and resistant to Clarithromycin, Ceftriaxone and Gentamycin. Sequence analysis of 16 rRNA indicated new isolates were closely related to the Glutamicibacter aitensis strain ebst40 and arthro bacterial aitensis strain L11 with the highest sequence similarity (100%).