Out of 39 isolates of rhizobacteria, recovered from economic plants grown in 8 locations in Egypt, 6 isolates were able to produce Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN). 16S rRNA sequence analysis identified these isolates as: Pseudomonas japonica strain NBRC 103040, Bacillus megaterium strain CtST3.5, Pseudomonas sp. strain Gamma-81, P. tolaasii strain ATCC 33618, P. chlororaphis strain Lzh-T5, and P. mosselii strain CV25. These HCN producers were able to inhibit growth of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and affect viability of Meloidogyne incognita juveniles in vitro. The isolates of P. japonica and Pseudomonas sp. Gamma-81 prevented the gall formation on tomato plants by A. tumefaciens, regardless of the presence of M. incognita. The isolates of B. megaterium, P. chlororaphis, P. tolaasii, and P. mosselii decreased the weight and number of galls produced by A. tumefaciens in the presence or absence of M. incognita. The 6 HCN producers decreased the population of M. incognita and the number of nematode galls than the positive control, when used against M. incognita. A similar effect was achieved against mixed infections with M. incognita and A. tumefaciens. The HCN-producing rhizobacteria, in the presence of A. tumefaciens and/or M. incognita, caused obvious increment in all growth parameters of tomato than the negative control and healthy plants. The only exception was found in case of Pseudomonas sp. Gamma-81 against M. incognita and against mixed infection, where growth parameters of tomato were decreased. Although the isolates were naturally isolated from the rhizosphere of economic plants, it must be cautiously considered since the isolate identified as P. japonica has been reported as a human pathogen. Also, P. tolaasii was reported causing a bacterial blotch on cultivated mushrooms under certain environmental conditions. Further investigations are needed.

Root Knot Nematode (RKN, Meloidogyne incognita) is one of the greatest damaging soil pathogens causes severe yield losses in cucumber and many other economic crops. Here, we evaluated the potential antagonistic effect of the root mutualistic fungus Piriformospora indica against RKN and their impact on vegetative growth, yield, photosynthesis, endogenous salicylic acid (SA) and its responsive genes. Our results showed that P. indica dramatically decreased the damage on shoot and root architecture of cucumber plants, which consequently enhanced yield of infested plants. Likewise, P. indica colonization clearly improved the chlorophyll content and delimited the negative impact of RNK on photosynthesis. Moreover, P. indica colonization exhibited a significant reduction of different vital nematological parameters such as soil larva density, amount of eggs/eggmass, eggmasses, females and amount of galls at cucumber roots. Additionally, the results showed that SA level was significantly increased generally in the roots of all treatments especially in plants infested with RKN alone as compared to control. This suggests that P. indica promoting SA levels in host cucumber plant roots to antagonize the RKN and alleviate severity damages occurred in its roots. This higher levels of SA in cucumber roots was consistent with the higher expressional levels of SA pathway genes PR1 and PR3. Furthermore, P. indica colonization reduces PR1, PR3 and increased NPR1 in roots of RKN infested cucumber plants when compared to non-colonized plants. Interestingly, our in vitro results showed that direct application of P. indica suspension against the J2s exhibited a significant increase in mortality ratio. Our results collectively suggest that P. indica promoting morphological, physiological and SA levels that might together play a major important role to alleviate the adverse impact of RKN in cucumber.

Aim:The aims of the study were to isolate and characterize the nematode trapping fungus, Arthrobotrys oligospora, to investigate the suppressive and predacious activities of the fungus against Meloidogyne incognita and to study the potentiality of A. oligospora in controlling root-knot caused by M. incognita on tomato plants. Methods and Results: Arthrobotrys oligospora (MRDS 300) was isolated from sandy soil samples collected from Al-Beheira, Egypt. In vitro experiments revealed a high efficiency of the fungus in capturing and suppressing M. incognita second juveniles (J 2 ). Microscopic observations showed that the fungus develops adhesive traps consisting of loops of hyphae. Moreover, an in vitro experiment showed that the culture filtrate of A. oligospora had a high toxic effect on the nematode. Pot experiments carried out in two seasons (2018-2019) showed that A. oligospora significantly suppressed root knot on tomato plants caused by M. incognita. The number of females, galls and nematodes in different developing stages were reduced significantly. The treatment with A. oligospora had a prominent effect on enhancing plant growth. Conclusion: Arthrobotrys oligospora had significant suppressive and predacious effects against root-knot nematode, M. incognita. The fungus developed different forms of trapping devices in addition to secreting toxic metabolites to M. incognita. The fungus had a plant-growth promoting effect. Significance and Impact of the Study: Arthrobotrys oligospora (MRDS 300) is a potential biological control agent that can be utilized in controlling the rootknot diseases caused by M. incognita.

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The application of vermicompost and water treatment residuals to improve the physical properties in the salt affected soils is a promising technology to meet the requirements of high plant growth and cost-effective reclamation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of vermicompost and its mixtures with water treatment residuals on selected physical properties of saline sodic soil and on wheat yield. The treatments were vermicompost, water treatment residuals, vermicompost + water treatment residuals (1:1 and 2:1 wet weight ratio) at levels of 5 and 10 g dry weight kg-1 dry soil. The considered physical properties included aggregate stability, mean weight diameter, pore size distribution and dry bulk density. The addition of vermicompost and water treatment residuals had significant positive effects on the studied soil physical properties, and improved the grain yield of wheat. The treatment of (2 vermicompost + 1 water treatment residuals) at level of 5 g kg-1 soil gave the best grain yield. Combination of vermicompost and water treatment residuals improved the water treatment residuals efficiency in ameliorating the soil physical properties, and could be considered as an ameliorating material for the reclamation of salt affected soils.

The purpose of this study was to test the nematicidal activity of extracts of two marine algae (Colpomenia sinuosa and Corallina mediterranea) and their synthesized silver nanoparticles against root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) that infest tomato plants. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that nanoparticles had aggregated into anisotropic Ag particles, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the particle sizes were less than 40 nm. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis revealed that the obtained nanoparticles had a sharp absorbance between 440 and 4000 cm−1, with 13 distinct peaks ranging from 474 to 3915 cm−1. Methylene chloride extracts and nanoparticles synthesized from both algae species were used to treat M. incognita. C. sinuosa nanoparticles had the highest nematicidal activity of any treatment. Furthermore, and in contrast to other treatments, C. sinuosa nanoparticles reduced the number of nematode galls, egg-masses per root, and eggs/egg mass, while also improving plant growth parameters. C. sinuosa's methylene chloride extract was more active than C. mediterranea's, and the most effective eluent of this solvent was hexane: methylene chloride: ethyl acetate (1: 0.5: 0.5, v/v/v). When applied to M. incognita, the third fraction of this eluent was the most effective, resulting in 87.5% mortality after 12 h and 100% mortality after 24 and 72 h of exposure. The presence of seven bioactive constituents was discovered during the analysis of this fraction. In conclusion, the silver nanoparticles synthesized from C. sinuosa could be used as alternative chemical nematicides.

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Soil microbial communities play a crucial role in soil fertility, sustainability, and plant health. However, intensive agriculture with increasing chemical inputs and changing environments have influenced native soil microbial communities. Approaches have been developed to study the structure, diversity, and activity of soil microbes to better understand the biology and plant-microbe interactions in soils. Unfortunately, a good understanding of soil microbial community remains a challenge due to the complexity of community composition, interactions of the soil environment, and limitations of technologies, especially related to the functionality of some taxa rarely detected using conventional techniques. Culture-based methods have been shown unable and sometimes are biased for assessing soil microbial communities. To gain further knowledge, culture-independent methods relying on direct analysis of nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids are worth exploring. In recent years, metagenomics, metaproteomics, metatranscriptomics, and proteogenomics have been increasingly used in studying microbial ecology. In this review, we examined the importance of microbial community to soil quality, the mystery of rhizosphere and plant-microbe interactions, and the biodiversity and multi-trophic interactions that influence the soil structure and functionality. The impact of the cropping system and climate change on the soil microbial community was also explored. Importantly, progresses in molecular biology, especially in the development of high-throughput biotechnological tools, were extensively assessed for potential uses to decipher the diversity and dynamics of soil microbial communities, with the highlighted advantages/limitations.