Molecular characters of Enterobcater using 16S rDNA isolated from tomato, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Enterobacter species are gram negative, motile, non-spore forming, rod shaped, facultatively anaerobic bacteria of the Enterobacteriaceae family. It is also described as non-spore-forming, flagella-containing, urease positive, and lactose fermenting. Enterobacter includes several species which can be a risky pathogenic bacteria to the vegetables, including tomato, and therefore have an impact on the fresh production of tomato. This study was conducted to isolate and identify Enterobacter from a tomato field, in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Therefore, this molecular study was conducted in 2022 at the Limpopo University to identify the bacterium associated with tomato filed from South Africa's soils using 16S rDNA marker. The DNA was extracted using the chelex method. The bacterium was identified as Enterobacter. The Nblast analysis showed South African Enterobacter has 97% similarity with a population from Korea (KC355340). Phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood placed this species with those molecularly identified as Enterobacter in the same clade with highly supported (100) bootstrap values. In conclusion, this species is identified using 16S rDNA properly. However, using other DNA markers for a better understanding of Enterobacter phylogeny is recommended.