The Effect of Bacillus licheniformis MH48 on Control of Foliar Fungal Diseases and Growth Promotion of Camellia oleifera Seedlings in the Coastal Reclaimed Land of Korea

Abstract

This study investigated the control of foliar fungal diseases and growth promotion of Camellia oleifera seedlings in coastal reclaimed land through the use of Bacillus licheniformis MH48. B. licheniformis MH48 can produce lytic enzymes chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase that can inhibit foliar pathogens by 37.4 to 50.5%. Nevertheless, foliar diseases appeared in the seedlings with bacterial inoculation, and their survival rate decreased because they were unable to withstand salt stress. However, B. licheniformis MH48 significantly increased the total nitrogen and phosphorus contents in the soils through fixing atmospheric nitrogen and solubilizing phosphorus. The growth of seedlings with bacterial inoculation increased, particularly in root dry weight, by 7.42 g plant−1, which was 1.7-fold greater than that of the control. B. licheniformis MH48 produces the phytohormone auxin, which potentially stimulates seedling root growth. C. oleifera seedlings significantly increased in total nitrogen content to 317.57 mg plant−1 and total phosphorus content to 46.86 mg plant−1. Our results revealed the effectiveness of B. licheniformis MH48 not only in the control of foliar fungal diseases but also in the growth promotion of C. oleifera seedlings in coastal lands.

Control of Fungal Diseases and Increase in Yields of a Cultivated Jujube Fruit (Zizyphus jujuba Miller var. inermis Rehder) Orchard by Employing Lysobacter antibioticus HS124

“…Cell wall-degrading enzymes such as chitinase produced by antagonistic bacteria are known to play key roles in the suppression of phytopathogenic fungi [25][26][27][28][29][30]. In the present study, results of quantitative chitinase assay indicated that strain HS124 produced high levels of chitinase in colloidal containing medium (Figure 3).…”

“…The experiment was repeated three times with three replications. The inhibition of fungal growth by the HS124 strain was determined with the following formula: inhibition (%) = [(α − β)/α] × 100, where α was the radial growth of phytopathogenic fungus on the control plate and β was the radial growth of phytopathogenic fungus on the dual culture plate [27,28,30].…”

“…Among various other eco-friendly cultivation methods, environmentally friendly cultivation methods that employ biological control by using microorganisms can promote crop production. Thus, they are gaining popularity because of their high potential value [25][26][27][28]. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) play a significant role in reduction of infection by plant pathogenic fungi leading to be a promising alternative to control plant diseases.…”

“…Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) play a significant role in reduction of infection by plant pathogenic fungi leading to be a promising alternative to control plant diseases. PGPR are known to produce lytic enzymes, preventing infection by fungal diseases [27][28][29][30]. However, the biocontrol efficacy of PGPR on diseases associated with jujube fruit is not clearly investigated.…”

“…PGPR provide plants with phytohormones [24,31], especially auxin, which can loosen the cell wall of root tissue cells, allowing cells to absorb additional nutrients, thereby promoting the growth of root hair and lateral roots [24,25,27,28,31,32]. In addition, auxin helps establish symbiosis with rhizobia or mycorrhiza and facilitates the uptake of nutrients from soils, promoting plant production [24,25,27,28,31,32]. In particular, after the flower is fertilized, auxin acts on the division and expansion of cells, promoting vegetative growth and increasing fruit size and yield [31,33,34].…”