Antagonistic activity of Streptomyces halstedii and S. violaceusniger In pepper anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

More than 1200 microorganisms were isolated from soil samples collected from various sources and localities. Among the isolates, 2 actinomyces (TH-04 and BA313) and 1 Bacillus sp. (CJ3) were selected as antagonists to pepper anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. These 3 isolates inhibitied mycelial growth of C gloeosporioides and the inhibition rates were over 70％ on PDA. When the isolates were co-cultured with conidia of C. gloeosporioides in potato dextrose broth, conidial germination was severely inhibited and the inhibition rates of TH-04, BA313, and CJ3 at 24 hours were 75％, 72％, and 68％, respectively. The inhibition rates at n hours incubation were not much different from the rates at 24 hours. To check the activity on the plant, each isolate was mixed with equal volume of conidial suspension of C. gloeosporioides and wound-inoculated on green pepper fruit. After 6 days, the anthracnose lesions on the fruits inoculated with the mixture were much smaller than the lesions caused by the C. gloeosporioides itself. The lesion areas of TH-04 or BA313 treated pepper were less than 30％ of the check. TH-04 and BA313 also showed antagonistic activity to Phytophthora spp. and Botrytis cinerea. By scanning electron microscopy and fatty acid analyses (MIDI), TH-04 and BA313 were identified to Streptomyces halstedii and S. violaceusniger, repectively.