Euphorbiaceae is a highly diverse family of plants ranging from trees to ground-dwelling minute plants. Many of these have multi-faceted attributes like ornamental, medicinal, industrial, and food-relevant values. In addition, they have been regarded as keystone resources for investigating plant-specific resilience mechanisms that grant them the dexterity to withstand harsh climates. In the present study, we isolated two co-culturable bacterial endophytes, EP1-AS and EP1-BM, from the stem internodal segments of the prostate spurge, Euphorbia prostrata, a plant member of the succulent family Euphorbiaceae. We characterized them using morphological, biochemical, and molecular techniques which revealed them as novel strains of Enterobacteriaceae, Lelliotia amnigena. Both the isolates significantly were qualified during the assaying of their plant growth promotion potentials. BM formed fast-growing swarms while AS showed growth as rounded colonies over nutrient agar. We validated the PGP effects of AS and BM isolates through in vitro and ex vitro seed-priming treatments with wheat and tomato, both of which resulted in significantly enhanced seed germination and morphometric and physiological plant growth profiles. In extended field trials, both AS and BM could remarkably also exhibit productive yields in wheat grain and tomato fruit harvests. This is probably the first-ever study in the context of PGPB endophytes in Euphorbia prostrata. We discuss our results in the context of promising agribiotechnology translations of the endophyte community associated with the otherwise neglected ground-dwelling spurges of Euphorbiaceae.
Keywords: Euphorbiaceae; biofertilizer; endophyte; latex; plant growth promotion; productivity; spurge; succulent; tomato; wheat.