• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.304-311
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• 1995

To determine whether chitinolytic enzymes from Chromobacterium violaceum C-61 play an important role in the suppression of Rhizoctonia damping-off, Tn5 insertion mutants deficient in chitinolytic activity (Chi a- mutants) were selected and their chitinolytic and disease suppression were compared with those of the parental strain. Four Chi a- mutants selected from about 2,000 transconjugants did not inhibit mycelial growth of Rhizoctonia solani on nutrient agar-potato dextrose agar (BA-PDA) and their abilities to suppress Rhizoctonia damping-off were much lower than the parental strain. However, population density in the eggplant rhizosphere did not differ significantly between the parental strain and four Chi a- mutants. The crude enzyme of the parental strain inhibited growth of R. solani on NA-PDA and its chitinase activity was much higher than that of Chi a- mutants. But the N,N' -diacetylchitobiase activity between these isolates were not significantly different. The chitinase of Chi a- mutants was defective in 2 isoforms of 52- and 37-kDa among four isoforms of 54-, 52-, 50- and 37-kDa. A Tn5 element was inserted into one site of 10 kb EcoRI fragment of chromosomal DNA in three Chi- mutants, C61-C1, -C2, and -C3. In C61-C4 mutant, a Tn5 element was inserted into two sites of 10 kb and 4.4 kb EcoRI fragments. These results suggest that the chitinase of C. violaceum C-61 play an important role in the suppression of Rhizoctonia damping-off of cucumber and eggplant.