Biomolecular Identification of Bacteria Endophytic From Betel Leaf in Jambi City Forest Park Area as Antibiotic-Producing Potential

Background and Objective: Muhammad Sabki City Forest Park in Jambi City has three types of betel plants that contain endophytic bacteria. In 2021, six isolates of endophytic bacteria with the potential for producing antibiotics (halo zone above 10 mm) have been isolated, which can kill Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) test bacteria. that are 5 (five) isolates derived from red betel were coded: BESKJ-m2, BESHKJ-m3, BESHKJ-m4, BESHKJ-m5, BESHKJ-m6, and 1 (one) isolate came from forest betel, with code BESHKJ-s1. This study aims to determine the species or strains of endophytic bacteria from betel leaf that have the potential to produce antibiotics. Materials and Methods: The research implementation includes rejuvenation and cultivation of endophytic bacterial isolates, characterization of isolates in species determination, bacterial genome DNA isolation, gene amplification with RNA 16s biomolecular, visualization by electrophoresis, sequencing, and phylogenetic tree analysis. Results: Based on the results of the nucleotide blast from the sequencing obtained from the Malaysian first base laboratory and based on the similarity of the sequence arrangement in the NCBI Gene Bank, six species of bacterial isolates were identified, namely, six bacterial isolates belonging to the Bacillus group. isolate BESHKJ M-4 shows a close relationship with Bacillus safeness, BESHKJ M-6 is related to Bacillus thuringensis, BESHKJ M-3 has a close relationship with Bacillus qingshengii, BESHKJ S-1 has a close relationship with Achromobacter anxifer, and isolates BESHKJ M-2 and BESHKJ M-5 are the same isolate as Bacillus paramcoydes. Conclusion: This study successfully identified six antibiotic-producing endophytic bacterial isolates from betel leaves in Jambi. These include Bacillus safensis, Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus qingshengii, Bacillus paramycoides (two isolates), and Achromobacter anxifer. These findings contribute to the exploration of natural antimicrobial agents from plant-associated microbiota.