Study on screening and antagonistic mechanisms of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 54 against bacterial fruit blotch (BFB) caused by Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli.

Bacterial fruit blotch (BFB) was a serious threat to cucurbitaceae crops. It was caused by the gram-negative bacterium Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli. Two hundred strains, which have the potential in controlling plant diseases in our laboratory's biocontrol strain library, were employed to this research to screen some antagonistic bacteria, which can efficiently control bacterial fruit blotch disease. Based on the results of antagonistic activity experiments, greenhouse tests and field trials, 5 of the test strains have high abilities to control BFB. One of the 5 bacteria strains has the highest potential to control BFB named 54. The biocontrol efficacy of 54 was up to 60%. To characterize the strain, we used series of methods to evaluate the bacterium, including morphology analysis, physiological biochemical test and biomolecular assay. We found that the bacterium 54 belongs to the species Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. The colonization test results showed that 54 had the highest colonization levels, and the density of the strain on leaves was up 10(5)colony forming units (CFU) per gram of leaf tissue. Our recent results show that B. amyloliquefaciens 54 can promote the plant growth due to raised the contents of available N, P, K and the leaf chlorophyll. The antagonistic bacterium 54 can significantly control the BF B by increasing the expression level of defense-related gene PR1 and the accumulation the hydrogen peroxide in the plant. The results of trail experiment was also verified this efficient results of bacterium. This is also the first report of B. amyloliquefaciens strain that is able to control BFB.

[Effects of bacterial consortium EG03 on control of pepper bacterial wilt and rhizosphere microbial community characteristics in fields].

Bacterial consortium EG03, consisted of several different antagonistic bacteria against Ralstonia solanacearum, was demonstrated to efficiently control bacterial wilt of pepper in field with a biocontrol efficacy of 85.8%. The traditional dilution plate method, the most probable number (MPN) method and Biolog system were adopted to determine effects of EG03 on characteristics of microbial community in pepper rhizosphere. It's shown that EGO3's effects on microbial community in pepper rhizospheric soil varied with time. There were an increase in the number of fungus and Bacillus spp. to some extent and a significant increase in that of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Biolog analysis showed that the curve between average well color development (AWCD) and incubation time was S-shaped for all the treatments and that the AWCD of pepper rhizospheric soil at the early stage was higher than at the late stage. The analysis of carbon source utilization showed that EG03 decreased microbial utilization of carbon source in short-term, and the microbial community of pepper rhizospheric soil at the late stage composed mainly of microbes depended on sugars as carbon resource. EG03 treatment could decrease the five microbial diversity indices of rhizospheric microbes in short term, then increased those indices instead, especially with significant (P < 0.05) increases in Simpson index and McIntosh evenness.