Isolation and identification of indigenous Bacillus spp. associated with vegetables grown in Tamil Nadu, India

In an attempt to identify indigenous isolates of endophytes effective against root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici and their complex disease twenty five isolates were collected from different plant parts of vegetables grown in Tamil Nadu, India. Ten isolates collected from stem and leaves of tomato and leaves of chilli were identified as genus Bacillus based on morphological and cultural characters besides biochemical tests and confirmed through molecular characterization. Further the partial sequencing of the ten isolates of genus Bacillus confirmed their species identify as B. weihenstephanensis, B. cereus, B. licheniformis, B. subtilis, B. tequilensis and B. thuringiensis.