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Bacteria associated with tissues of metal-hyperaccumulating plants are of great interest due to the multiple roles they may play with respect to plant growth and resistance to heavy metals. The variability of bacterial communities associated with plant tissues of three populations of Alyssum bertolonii, a Ni hyperaccumulator endemic of serpentine outcrops of Central Italy, was investigated. Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA genes was applied to DNA extracted from leaf tissues of 30 individual plants from three geographically separated serpentine outcrops. Moreover, T-RFLP fingerprinting was also performed on DNA extracted from the same soils from which the plants were collected. Fifty-nine unique terminal-restriction fragments (TRFs) were identified, with more than half of the taxonomically interpreted TRFs assigned to Alpha- and Gamma-Proteobacteria and Clostridia. Data were then used to define the extent of variation of bacterial communities due to single plants or to plant populations. Results indicated a very high plant-by-plant variation of leaf-associated community (more than 93% of total variance observed). However, a core (numerically small) of plant-specific TRFs was found. This work demonstrates that plant-associated bacterial communities represent a large reservoir of biodiversity and that the high variability existing between plants, even from the same population, should be taken into account in future studies on association between bacteria and metal-hyperaccumulating plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]