• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.777-790
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• 2011

To elucidate the biodiversity of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in Korea, 7,638 bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere of plant species growing in many different regions were screened. A large number of PGPR were identified by testing the ability of each isolate to promote the growth of cucumber seedlings. After redundant rhizobacteria were removed via amplified rDNA restriction analysis, 90 strains were finally selected as PGPR. On the basis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequences, 68 Gram-positive (76%) and 22 Gram-negative (24%) isolates were assigned to 21 genera and 47 species. Of these genera, Bacillus (32 species) made up the largest complement, followed by Paenibacillus (19) and Pseudomonas (11). Phylogenetic analysis showed that most of the Grampositive PGPR fell into two categories: low- and high- G+C (Actinobacteria) strains. The Gram-negative PGPR were distributed in three categories: ${\alpha}$-proteobacteria, ${\beta}$- proteobacteria, and ${\gamma}$-proteobacteria. To our knowledge, this is the largest screening study designed to isolate diverse PGPR. The enlarged understanding of PGPR genetic diversity provided herein will expand the knowledge base regarding beneficial plant-microbe interactions. The outcome of this research may have a practical effect on crop production methodologies.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2014

Microbiota in the niches of the rhizosphere zones can affect plant growth and responses to environmental stress conditions via mutualistic interactions with host plants. Specifically, some beneficial bacteria, collectively referred to as Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPRs), increase plant biomass and innate immunity potential. Here, we report that Enterobacter sp. EJ01, a bacterium isolated from sea china pink (Dianthus japonicus thunb) in reclaimed land of Gyehwa-do in Korea, improved the vegetative growth and alleviated salt stress in tomato and Arabidopsis. EJ01 was capable of producing 1-aminocy-clopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase and also exhibited indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production. The isolate EJ01 conferred increases in fresh weight, dry weight, and plant height of tomato and Arabidopsis under both normal and high salinity conditions. At the molecular level, short-term treatment with EJ01 increased the expression of salt stress responsive genes such as DREB2b, RD29A, RD29B, and RAB18 in Arabidopsis. The expression of proline biosynthetic genes (i.e. P5CS1 and P5CS2) and of genes related to priming processes (i.e. MPK3 and MPK6) were also up-regulated. In addition, reactive oxygen species scavenging activities were enhanced in tomatoes treated with EJ01 in stressed conditions. GFP-tagged EJ01 displayed colonization in the rhizosphere and endosphere in the roots of Arabidopsis. In conclusion, the newly isolated Enterobacter sp. EJ01 is a likely PGPR and alleviates salt stress in host plants through multiple mechanisms, including the rapid up-regulation of conserved plant salt stress responsive signaling pathways.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.223-228
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: Rhizosphere bacteria may improve plant growth and productivity both by supply nutrients and hormonal stimulation. Although many experiments have shown improvements in plant growth with inoculation of bacterial cultures to the rhizosphere, the main obstacle in the applications of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria in a large scale is the inconsistency of the results. We tested the growth promoting effects of Azospirillum and Methylobacterium strains on red pepper plant. METHODS AND RESULTS: Red pepper seedlings were grown for 25 days in a growth media inoculated with A. brasilense CW903 or M. oryzae CBMB20. The seedlings were transplanted and grown for 45 days in pots with soil in a greenhouse, at half the recommended level of fertilizer. Bacterial culture, $4.0{\times}10^9$ for A. brasilense CW903 and $5.8{\times}10^8$ CFU for M. oryzae CBMB20, was applied in root zone soil periodically every 10 days during the experiment. Inoculation of M. oryzae CBMB20 significantly increased the red pepper plant growth in terms of leaf number, height and mass of shoot, or root mass compared to uninoculated control plants. Although beneficial effects of A. brasilense on plant growth of many crops were observed, the growthpromoting effect of A. brasilense CW903 on red pepper plant was not found in this study. CONCLUSION(s): The factors responsible for the irregularities in plant growth promoting of rhizobacteria are difficult to elucidate. Extensive inoculation experiments in the greenhouse and in the field should enable us to define the factors critical to obtain successful application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.141-146
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• 2014

The necessity to develop economical and eco-friendly technologies is steadily increasing. Plant growth promoting rhizomicrobial strains PGPR are a group of microorganisms that actively colonize plant roots and increase plant growth and yield. Pot experiments were used to investigate the potential of some rhizobacterial strains to enhance the Brassica rapa growth. Microbial strains were successfully isolated from the rhizosphere of Panax ginseng and characterized based on its morphological and plant growth promotion characters. Surface disinfected seeds of Wisconsin Fast B. rapa were inoculated with the selected PGPR microorganisms. The different pots treatments were inoculated by its corresponding PGPR ($10^7cfu\;mL^{-1}$) and incubated in the growth chamber at $25^{\circ}C$ and 65% RH, the light period was adjusted to 24 hours (day). NPK chemical fertilizer and trade product (EMRO, USA) of effective microorganisms as well as un-inoculated control were used for comparison. Plants harvested in 40 days were found to have significant increase in leaf chlorophyll units and plant height and also in dry weight of root and shoot in the inoculated seedlings. Root and shoot length and also leaf surface area significantly were increased by bacterial inoculation in sterile soil. The study suggests that Rhodobacter capsulatus and Azotobacter chroococcum are beneficial for B. rapa growth as they enhance growth and induced IAA production and phosphorus solubilization. This study presents some rhizomicrobial strains that significantly promoted growth of Wisconsin Fast Plant B. rapa in pot experiment under different soil conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1613-1620
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• 2012

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a devastating disease of many economically important crops. Since there is no promising control strategy for bacterial wilt, phage therapy could be adopted using virulent phages. We used phage PE204 as a model lytic bacteriophage to investigate its biocontrol potential for bacterial wilt on tomato plants. The phage PE204 has a short-tailed icosahedral structure and double-stranded DNA genome similar to that of the members of Podoviridae. PE204 is stable under a wide range of temperature and pH, and is also stable in the presence of the surfactant Silwet L-77. An artificial soil microcosm (ASM) to study phage stability in soil was adopted to investigate phage viability under a controlled system. Whereas phage showed less stability under elevated temperature in the ASM, the presence of host bacteria helped to maintain a stable phage population. Simultaneous treatment of phage PE204 at $10^8$ PFU/ml with R. solanacearum on tomato rhizosphere completely inhibited bacterial wilt occurrence, and amendment of Silwet L-77 at 0.1% to the phage suspension did not impair the disease control activity of PE204. The biocontrol activities of phage PE204 application onto tomato rhizosphere before or after R. solanacearum inoculation were also investigated. Whereas pretreatment with the phage was not effective in the control of bacterial wilt, post-treatment of PE204 delayed bacterial wilt development. Our results suggested that appropriate application of lytic phages to the plant root system with a surfactant such as Silwet L-77 could be used to control the bacterial wilt of crops.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.32-36
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• 2008

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum has become a severe problem on tomato in Korea and no effective control measures are available yet. Pseudomonas species play key roles for the biocontrol of many plant diseases especially in soil. A rhizobacterial population of 150 Pseudomonas strains, isolated from the rhizosphere soil of various plants grown at different sites, was screened for 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol producing gene (PhlD) by PCR. Two strains (P83 and P84) among them were found to be phlD positive. When the isolates were analysed by 16S rDNA (Sensu Stricto), all isolates yielded amplified products of 1,018bp. Of the 150 isolates of Pseudomonas spp., a bacterial strain P. putida P84 isolated from tomato rhizosphere showed to suppress a wide range of phytopathogenic bacteria in vitro. The best source of carbon for P84 strain were glucose, arabinose, inositol and melibiose. In greenhouse experiments, P84 strain suppressed the development of bacterial wilt in tomato with a control value of 60%.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1435-1446
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• 2022

Zinc-solubilizing bacteria can convert the insoluble form of zinc into soluble forms available to plants. This study was conducted to isolate and screen zinc-solubilizing actinobacteria from rhizosphere soils and to assess their effect on vegetable soybean growth. In total, 200 actinobacteria strains belonging to 10 genera were isolated from rhizosphere soil samples. Among these isolates, four showed zinc solubilization with solubilizing index values ranging from 3.11 to 3.78 on Bunt and Rovira agar supplemented with 0.1% zinc oxide. For the quantitative assay, in broth culture, strains CME34 and EX51 solubilized maximum available zinc contents of 529.71 and 243.58 ㎍/ml. Furthermore, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and ammonia were produced by these two strains, the strain CME34 produced the highest amount of IAA 4.62 ㎍/ml and the strain EX51 produced the highest amount of ammonia 361.04 ㎍/ml. In addition, the phosphate-solubilizing abilities in Pikovskaya's medium of CME34 and EX51 were 64.67 and 115.67 ㎍/ml. Based on morphological and biochemical characterization and 16S rDNA sequencing, the strains CME34 and EX51 were closely related to the genus Streptomyces. In a greenhouse experiment, single-strain inoculation of Streptomyces sp. CME34 or EX51 significantly increased the shoot length, root length, plant dry weight, number of pods per plant and number of seeds per plant of vegetable soybean plants compared to the uninoculated control. These findings facilitated the conclusion that the two Streptomyces strains have potential as zinc solubilizers and can be suggested as bioinoculants to promote the growth and yield of soybean.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.114-120
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• 1986

Significant reduction in disease severity of bacterial wilt (Pseudomonas solanacearum) on the susceptible tobacco cultivar BY 4 was observed until mid-July in a naturally infested field when bacterial suspensions of avirulent isolate were applied to tobacco root zones at one day before and fourty days after transplanting into the field. However, rapid increase in disease severity after mid-July resulted in the same severity $(70\%)$ as on cultivar BY 4 without the application of the avirulent bacterial suspension at the end of the season. Yield increase in cultivar BY 4 was $35\%$ due to the treatment, resulting in $10\%$ price increase. The suppression me chanism did not appear to be dependent upon the inhibition of the virulent bacterial multiplication by the avirulent bacteria in tobacco rhizosphere soil because of no significant difference in the density of the patho genic bacteria between treated and untreated plant root zones. However. penetration of the virulent bacteria into the root systems and their multiplication in tobacco stem were inhibited remarkably by preinoculation with avirulent one, suggesting that those are related to the suppression of disease incidence.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2009

An antagonistic bacterial strain KLF01 was isolated from rhizosphere of tomato and identified to be Lactobacillus sp. by biochemical and genetic analysis. This strain showed antagonism against the used plant pathogenic bacteria like Ralstonia solanacearum, (bacterial wilt), Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri, (Citrus canker), Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Bacterial spot), Eriwinia pyrifoliae (Shoot-blight) and Eriwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora group (Potato scab) through agar well diffusion method. In planta test done by drench application of strain KLF01 $(4{\times}10^8 cfu/ml)$ into the experimental plot containing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivar 'Lokkusanmaru' and red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivar 'Buja' plants, in pot test post-inoculated with the plant pathogenic bacteria, R. solanacearum significantly reduced the disease severity, compared to the non-treated plants.