Biological control of Botrytis cinerea on stem wounds with moderately halophilic bacteria

Abstract

Infection of tomato stem wounds by Botrytis cinerea is an important problem which can cause severe economic losses in greenhouse tomato crops. Three moderately halophilic bacteria were tested for their ability to protect pruning wounds from attacks by B. cinerea under growth chamber conditions. The severity of the disease estimated by the length of the rotted stem was used to calculate the area under the disease progress curves (AU-DPC). Bacterial antagonists (B1, B2 and B3) were very effective in controlling Botrytis-infection on the tomato stems during the first 6 days and later by the end of the experiment. Plants treated with Bacillus subtilis (B1) had the lowest AUDPC (0). It was followed by B. subtilis (B3) and Halomonas sp. (B2) with AUDPC of 9.8 and 17.02, respectively. While the B1 strain best inhibited grey mold development when applied as young culture (24 h), the B3 strain performed better as an older culture (48 h). In contrast to the results obtained with Bacillus species, the efficacy of the bacterial treatment B2 seems to be independent of the growth phase. The co-cultures with fungal spores and either B. subtilis (B1) or Halomonas sp. (B2) applied as a 24 h bacterial culture completely inhibited the germination of B. cinerea after 24 h at 21°C.

Antimicrobial Behavior of Intracellular Proteins from Two Moderately Halophilic Bacteria: Strain J31 of Terribacillus halophilus and Strain M3- 23 of Virgibacillus marismortui

“…Previous studies have shown that halophilic bacteria from shallow salt lakes located in Tunisia were successful for pre-and postharvest treatments of tomato and strawberry crop in Tunisia [5,6,16]. In addition, on one hand, previously, we were the pioneer to evaluate the ability of halophilic bacteria to protect plant diseases from phytopathogenic fungi.…”

Key factors to inoculate Botrytis cinerea in tomato plants

“…It was decided to inoculate wounded stems given the significance of infections in this organ (21), which mainly occur through wounds resulting from the excision of leaves and lateral shoots (1, 7, 21). Other authors have assessed the results of inoculation with this pathogen between 4-5 days (13,22) and 8-12 days (9, 14) after inoculation. In the present study, lesion length, sporulation and stem breakage were assessed at 8 days after inoculation, when fungal sporulation covered the lesions.…”

The Sensitivity of some Types of Citrus Fruits, the role of the Propolis and the Color of Storage Bags in the Development of Green Mold Caused by Fungi Penicillium Digitatium

“…Sporophytes were prepared according to (12) , 1 ml sterile distilled water was added to each growing petri dish in which the Penicillium digitatium was observed, and the water was moved stirred the plate by using a sterile L-shaped glass rod. Then the water containing the sporophyte of the fungus was extracted and put into a test tube A 9 ml container of sterile distilled water.…”