Isolation of Bacillus sp. from bacterial leaf spot of Ficus elastica from Hamedan province

Isolation of Bacillus sp. from bacterial leaf spot of Ficus elastica from Hamedan province
E. karimi1, M. Taghinasab2and H.Rahimian3
-1College of agriculture, Buali-sina University ekarimi20@yahoo.com
2-College of crop sciences, Agricultural and Natural Resources Univ, Gorgan
3-College of agriculture, Mazandaran Univercity, Sari


A bacterial leaf spot of ficus (Ficus elastics) was observed in Hamedan in 2003. The spots were initially cholorotic and angular to irregular in shape, but became white and necrotic with age and often surrounded by a faint brownish halo. There was a conspicuous premature shedding of the symptomatic leaves. The bacterial strains were isolated on sucrose nutrient agar. Colonies were white colored on YDC medium and produced a fluorescent pigment on KB medium. Isolates were gram positive, rod shaped,produced subterminal endospore, facultatively anaerobic, catalase and oxidase positive. sorbitole, melibiose and glucose were utilized by all strains. They did not produce acid from citrate, mannitol and arabinose. The test for hydrolysis of starch was
negative. Isolates did not grow at 45© and 7% NaCl. Therefore the bacterium was identified as Bacillus sp. The bacterial strains were re-isolated from symptomatic leaves one to two weeks after inoculation. This is the first report on isolation of Bacillus sp. from F. elastica.