• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.275-282
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• 2005

A chitinolytic bacterium, Chromobacterium sp. strain C-61, was found strongly antagonistic to Rhizoctonia solani, a causal agent of damping-off of eggplant. In this study, the biocontrol activity and enzymatic characteristics of strain C-61 were compared with its four Tn5 insertion mutants (C61-A, -B, -C, and -D) that had lower chitinolytic ability. The chitinase activity of a 2-day old culture was about $76\%,\;49\%\;and\;6\%$ level in C61-A, C61-B and in C61-C, respectively, compared with that of strain C-61. The $\beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase$(Nahase) activity was little detected in strain C-61 but increased largely in C-61A, C61-B and C61-C. Activities of chitinase and Nahase appeared to be negatively correlated in these strains. Another mutant, C-61D, produced no detectable extracellular chitinase and Nahase. The in vitro and in vivo biocontrol activities of strain C-61 and its mutants were closely related to their ability to produce chitinase but not Nahase. No significant differences in population densities between strain C-61 and its mutants were observed in soil around eggplant roots. The results of SDS-PAGE and isoelectrofocusing showed that a major chitinase of strain C-61 is 54-kDa with pI of approximately 8.5. This study provides evidence that the biocontrol activity of Chromobacterium sp. strain C-61 against Rhizoctonia solani depends on the ability to produce chitinase with molecular weight of 54-kDa and pI of 8.5.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.129-132
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• 2003

Fusarium wilt of cucumber caused by Fusarium oxy-sporum f. sp. cucumerinum is a serious vascular disease worldwide. Biological control of Fusarium wilt in several crops has been accomplished by introducing non-pathogenic Fusarium sup. and other biocontrol agents in soil or in infection courts. In this study, quantitative models were used to determine the biocontrol efficacy of inundatively applied antagonist formulations and the length of their effectiveness in controlling Fusarium wilt of cucumber. Quantitative model of the form [Y=L (1${-exp}^{-kx}$)] best described the relationship between disease incidence (Y, %) and inoculum density (X) of isolates F51 and F55. Isolate F51 was selected as a more virulent isolate based on the extent of its effectiveness in causing the wilt disease. The degree of disease control (Xi/X) obtained with the density of the biocontrol agent (Z), was described by the model [Xi/X=A (1${-exp}^{-cz}$)]. The zeolite-based antagonist formulation amended with chitosan (ZAC) was better at lower rates of application and peaked at around 5 g/ kg of the potting medium, whereas the peat-based antagonist formulation (PA) peaked at around 10 g/kg of the potting medium. ZAC formulation provided significantly better suppression of Fusarium wilt as described by the curvilinear relationship of the type Y= a+bX+c$X^2$, where Y represents percent disease incidence and X represents sustaining effect of the biocontrol agent.

• 식물병연구
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.91-98
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• 2021

The current social demand for organic, sustainable, and eco-friendly approaches for farming, while ensuring the health and productivity of crops is increasing rapidly. Biocontrol agents are applied to crops to ensure biological control of plant pathogens. Research on the biological control of white root rot disease caused by a soil-borne pathogen, Rosellinia necatrix, is limited in pears compared to that in apple and avocado. This pathogenic fungus has an extensive host range, and symptoms of this disease include rotting of roots, yellowing and falling of leaves, wilting, and finally tree death. The severity of the disease caused by R. necatrix, makes it the most harmful fungal pathogen infecting the economical fruit tree species, such as pears, and is one of the main limiting factors in pear farming, with devastating effects on plant health and yield. In addition to agronomic and cultural practices, growers use chemical treatments to control the disease. However, rising public concern about environmental pollution and harmful effects of chemicals in humans and animals has facilitated the search for novel and environmentally friendly disease control methods. This review will briefly summarize the current status of biocontrol agents, ecofriendly methods, and possible approaches to control disease in pear orchards.

• 한국식물병리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국식물병리학회 1994년도 Proceedings of International Symposium on BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF PLANT DISEASES Korean Society of Plant Pathology
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• pp.75-85
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• 1994

Biocontrol is playing a more and more important role in plant disease management. Evidences show that there are optimum prospects for people to apply biocontrol approach to control plant disease or to study the mechanism of antagonism.“The study of Antagonistic Protein of Bacillus spp.to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae”has been worked in our laboratory since 1986. One hundred and thirty antagonistics bacteria were screened out, most of them belonged to Bacillus spp., and showed very strong inhibitive effect to various plant pathogens. Nine antagonistic proteins (peptides) were purified (P11-I, P11-II, B8, B826-I, B826-II, A30-I, A30-II, G35). Two antagonistic protein related DNA fragments (B826-I, A30-II) were cloned and sequenced. B826-I DNA fragment composed by 905 bp, and it contained two ORF encoding 95, and 54 amino acids, respectively. By using Rifr and Kamr as the selective markers, we found the bacteria could colonize on rice leaf for at least 40 days. In greenhouse the antagonistic bacteria showed certain degree of control efficiency.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.138-141
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• 2002

A promising biocontrol agent, A2l-4, against Phytophthora blight of pepper was selected from 351 bacterial isolates collected from rhizosphere soils and roots of onion (Allium fistulosum L.). The isolate A21-4 was identified as Serratia plymuthica based on its 16S rRNA sequence and key characteristics as compared with that of an authentic culture of S. plymuthica (ATCC No. 6109D01). The isolate readily colonized on roots of various crops including pepper when inoculated on seed and not. Strain A2l-4 showed narrow spectrum of antibiotic activity, as revealed in its strong inhibitory activity to the genera Pythium and Phytophthora, but not to Fuasrium and Rhizoctonia. In pot experiments, none of the pepper seedlings treated with A2l-4 were infected by Phytophthora capsici, while 86% of the control plants were killed by the pathogen.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.136-141
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• 2009

Marking biocontrol bacteria is an essential step to monitor bacterial behavior in natural environments before application in agricultural ecosystem. In this study, we presented the simple green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter system driven by the promoter active in Bacillus species for tagging of the biocontrol bacteria. A constitutive promoter P43 from Bacillus subtilis was fused to an enhanced promoterless gfp gene by overlap extension PCR. The GFP expression was demonstrated by the high fluorescence intensity detected in B. subtilis and Escherichia coli transformed with the P43-gfp fusion construct, respectively. The GFP reporter system was further investigated in two bacterial biocontrol strains B. licheniformis and Pseudomonas fluorescens. When the reconstructed plasmid pWH34G was introduced into B. licheniformis, GFP level measured with the fluorescence intensity in B. licheniformis was almost equivalent to that in B. subtilis. However, GFP expression level was extremely low in other biocontrol bacteria P. fluorescens by transposon based stable insertion of the P43-gfp construct into the bacterial chromosome. This study provides information regarding to the efficient biomarker P43-gfp fusion construct for bio-control Bacillus species.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.136-144
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• 2016

Pseudomonas fluorescens pc78 is an effective biocontrol agent for soil-borne fungal diseases. We previously constructed a P43-gfp tagged biocontrol bacteria P. fluorescens pc78-48 to investigate bacterial traits in natural ecosystem and the environmental risk of genetically modified biocontrol bacteria in tomato rhizosphere. Fluctuation of culturable bacteria profile, microbial community structure, and potential horizontal gene transfer was investigated over time after the bacteria treatment to the tomato rhizosphere. Tagged gene transfer to other organisms such as tomato plants and bacteria cultured on various media was examined by polymerase chain reaction, using gene specific primers. Transfer of chromosomally integrated P43-gfp from pc78 to other organisms was not apparent. Population and colony types of culturable bacteria were not significantly affected by the introduction of P. fluorescens pc78 or pc78-48 into tomato rhizosphere. Additionally, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles were investigated to estimate the influence on the microbial community structure in tomato rhizosphere between non-treated and pc78-48-treated samples. Interestingly, rhizosphere soil treated with strain pc78-48 exhibited a significantly different bacterial community structure compared to that of non-treated rhizosphere soil. Our results suggest that biocontrol bacteria treatment influences microbial community in tomato rhizosphere, while the chromosomally modified biocontrol bacteria may not pose any specific environmental risk in terms of gene transfer.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.288-298
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• 2014

We examined the efficacy of a bacterium for biocontrol of the root-knot nematode (RKN) Meloidogyne hapla in carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Among 542 bacterial isolates from various soils and plants, the highest nematode mortality was observed for treatments with isolate C1-7, which was identified as Bacillus cereus based on cultural and morphological characteristics, the Biolog program, and 16S rRNA sequencing analyses. The population density and the nematicidal activity of B. cereus C1-7 remained high until the end of culture in brain heart infusion broth, suggesting that it may have sustainable biocontrol potential. In pot experiments, the biocontrol efficacy of B. cereus C1-7 was high, showing complete inhibition of root gall or egg mass formation by RKN in carrot and tomato plants, and subsequently reducing RKN damage and suppressing nematode population growth, respectively. Light microscopy of RKN-infected carrot root tissues treated with C1-7 showed reduced formation of gall cells and fully developed giant cells, while extensive gall cells and fully mature giant cells with prominent cell wall ingrowths formed in the untreated control plants infected with RKNs. These histopathological characteristics may be the result of residual or systemic biocontrol activity of the bacterium, which may coincide with the biocontrol efficacies of nematodes in pots. These results suggest that B. cereus C1-7 can be used as a biocontrol agent for M. hapla.

• Mycobiology
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• 제46권1호
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• pp.33-46
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• 2018

Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) is one of the most common diseases of strawberries (Fragaria${\times}$ananassa Duchesne) worldwide. Although many chemical fungicides are used for controlling the growth of B. cinerea, the risk of the fungus developing chemical resistance together with consumer demand for reducing the use of chemical fungicides have necessitated an alternative method to control this pathogen. Various naturally occurring microbes aggressively attack plant pathogens and benefit plants by suppressing diseases; these microbes are referred to as biocontrol agents. However, screening of potent biocontrol agents is essential for their further development and commercialization. In this study, 24 strains of yeast with antagonistic ability against gray mold were isolated, and the antifungal activity of the volatile and diffusible metabolites was evaluated. Putative mechanisms of action associated with the biocontrol capacity of yeast strains against B. cinerea were studied through in vitro and in vivo assays. The volatile organic compounds produced by the Galactomyces candidum JYC1146 could be useful in the biological control of plant pathogens and therefore are potential alternative fungicides with low environmental impact.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.278-282
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• 2006

Bacillus vallismortis EXTN-1, a biocontrol agent in cucumber, tomato and potato was tested in rice pathosystem against rice fungal pathogens viz. Magnaporthe grisea, Rhizoctonia solani and Cochliobolus miyabeanus. Apart from increasing the yield in the bacterized plants (11.6-12.6% over control), the study showed that EXTN1 is effective in bringing about disease suppression against all the tested fungal pathogens. EXTN-l treatment resulted in 52.11% reduction in rice blast, 83.02% reduction in sheath blight and 11.54% decrease in brown spot symptoms. As the strain is proven as an inducer for systemic resistance based on PR gene expression in Arabidopsis and tobacco models, it is supposed that a similar mechanism works in rice, bringing about disease suppression. The strain could be used as a potent biocontrol and growth-promoting agent in rice cropping system.