In Vitro and In Planta Antagonistic Effect of Endophytic Bacteria on Blight Causing <i>Xanthomonas axonopodis</i> pv. <i>punicae</i>: A Destructive Pathogen of Pomegranate

oleh: Nripendra Vikram Singh, Jyotsana Sharma, Manjushri Dinkar Dongare, Ramakant Gharate, Shivkumar Chinchure, Manjunatha Nanjundappa, Shilpa Parashuram, Prakash Goudappa Patil, Karuppannan Dhinesh Babu, Dhananjay Morteppa Mundewadikar, Unnati Salutgi, Muskan Tatiya, Aundy Kumar, Rajiv Arvind Marathe

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-12-01

Deskripsi

Pomegranate bacterial blight caused by <i>Xanthomonas axonopodis</i> pv. <i>punicae</i> (<i>Xap</i>) is a highly destructive disease. In the absence of host resistance to the disease, we aimed to evaluate the biocontrol potential of endophytic bacteria against <i>Xap</i>. Thus, in this study, we isolated endophytes from pomegranate plants, identified them on the basis of 16S rDNA sequencing, tested them against <i>Xap</i>, and estimated the endophyte-mediated host defense response. The population of isolated endophytes ranged from 3 × 10<sup>6</sup> to 8 × 10<sup>7</sup> CFU/g tissue. Furthermore, 26 isolates were evaluated for their biocontrol activity against <i>Xap</i>, and all the tested isolates significantly reduced the in vitro growth of <i>Xap</i> (15.65% ± 1.25% to 56.35% ± 2.66%) as compared to control. These isolates could reduce fuscan, an uncharacterized factor of <i>Xap</i> involved in its aggressiveness. Lower blight incidence (11.6%) and severity (6.1%) were recorded in plants sprayed with endophytes 8 days ahead of <i>Xap</i> spray (Set-III) as compared to control plants which were not exposed to endophytes (77.33 and 50%, respectively%) during in vivo evaluation. Moreover, significantly high phenolic and chlorophyll contents were estimated in endophyte-treated plants as compared to control. The promising isolates mostly belonged to the genera <i>Bacillus</i>, <i>Burkholderia</i>, and <i>Lysinibacillus</i>, and they were deposited to the National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection, India.