Endophytic Bacteria and Essential Oil from Origanum vulgare ssp. vulgare Share Some VOCs with an Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

Medicinal aromatic plants' essential oils (EOs) are mixtures of volatile compounds showing antimicrobial activity, which could be exploited to face the emerging problem of multi-drug resistance. Their chemical composition can depend on the interactions between the plant and its endophytic microbiota, which is known to synthesize volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, it is still not clear whether those volatile metabolites can contribute to the composition of the aroma profile of plants' EOs. The aims of this study were to characterize medicinal plant O. vulgare ssp. vulgare bacterial endophyte VOCs, evaluating their ability to antagonize the growth of opportunistic human pathogens belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) and compare them with O. vulgare EO composition. Many of the tested endophytic strains showed (i) a bactericidal and/or bacteriostatic activity against most of Bcc strains and (ii) the production of VOCs with widely recognized antimicrobial properties, such as dimethyl disulfide, dimethyl trisulfide, and monoterpenes. Moreover, these monoterpenes were also detected in the EOs extracted from the same O. vulgare plants from which endophytes were isolated. Obtained results suggest that endophytes could also play a role in the antibacterial properties of O. vulgare ssp. vulgare and, potentially, in determining its aromatic composition.