Abstract: In this research, we analyzed the diversity of Lactobacillus isolated from banana plants (Musa nana Lour.), aiming to find new plant-derived strains of Lactobacillus for the silage and food fermentation industries in the future. The classical method was used for bacterial isolation and bacterial identification was performed by molecular biology techniques. In addition, the physiological and biochemical characteristics, growth rate and acid production rate of the isolates were evaluated and typical strains were selected for sequencing, 16S rDNA sequence analysis and phylogenetic analysis. The bacteriostatic effects of the selected strains were investigated on the common foodborne pathogens Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Bacillus subtilis and Listeria monocytogenes. The results showed that 44 suspected strains were isolated from?six parts of banana plants. Five typical strains were identified, namely 3 Lactobacillus plantarum (WFr6-4, WSt6-4 and WL7-3), 1 Lactobacillus pentosus (WFl5-3) and 1 Enterococcus casseliflavus (WR7-1). All the five strains showed significant antibacterial activity, with WL7-3 demonstrating the highest bacteriostatic effect. Thus, Lactobacillus was the?dominant?bacterium on banana plants, which had a strong bacteriostatic effect on all pathogens tested.

Key words: banana plants, Lactobacillus, separation and identification, 16S rDNA sequence analysis, phylogenetic tree, bacteriostasis