Crown gall induced by Agrobacterium vitis is a worldwide plant disease in grape-growing regions. Rahnella aquatilis HX2, a new isolate from vineyard soil in Beijing, showed a significant inhibition effect on the development of crown galls in grapevines. In field trials, immersion of the basal ends of grape cuttings with HX2 cell suspension inhibited or completely prevented crown gall formation caused by A. vitis K308 in the roots of the plants from the cuttings. The 3-year average disease incidence in grape plants treated with HX2 was 30.8% compared to 93.5% in plants without HX2. The culture supernatant of HX2 exhibited a stronger inhibition effect on disease development than did the cell suspension. HX2 could be found in the grape rhizosphere, grown under field conditions, for up to 90 days after inoculation. There was no significant difference in the mean population sizes of root microflora between plants treated and not treated with HX2. The inhibition effect of HX2 on crown gall in sunflower, caused by different agrobacterial strains, varied between 30.7 and 100%, depending on strains. Our results showed that Rahnella aquatilis HX2 may be used as a biological control agent for crown gall disease of grapes.

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Crown gall in grapevine, caused by tumorigenic Agrobacterium vitis strains, can cause severe losses in most viticulture regions worldwide. The only effective means of control is through cultivation practices. One non-tumorigenic A. vitis strain, E26, can prevent crown gall infection when applied to wounds on grapevine prior to or simultaneous with inoculation of tumorigenic strains. ME19, a Tn5 mutant of strain E26, was impaired in terms of its ability to be chemoattracted by grapevine root tissue extracts and its attachment to grapevine roots, and had reduced biological control activity; it did not significantly differ from the wild-type strain of E26 in phenotypes of agrocin production, growth in minimum medium or swarming activity. Complementation of ME19 with the cosmid clone of CP1543 from an E26 DNA library restored the chemotaxis, attachment, and biocontrol phenotypes. A 7·3-kb Kpn I fragment from CP1543 was cloned and sequenced, and sequence analysis revealed that the Tn 5 insertion occurred in a region that shares a significant homology with genes coding for methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs) in many bacteria. Complementation of the mcp gene mutants restored the affected phenotypes to the level of wild-type E26. An in-frame deletion mutant of the mcp gene was generated and was determined to have the same phenotypes as the original Tn5 mutant.