Biological Control of sheath blight disease in rice using Marine Actinomycetes (Streptomycetes rochei) AMET A311 strain

Abstract

The soil samples were taken from the rhizome soil of coastal sand dune plants along the Hare islands, Tuticorin, East Coast of Tamil Nadu, in order to isolate an efficient antifungal marine actinomycetes. A total of 70 actinomycetes were isolated from the samples collected. Based on colony morphology, aerial mass color, melanoid pigments, reverse side pigments, soluble pigments, spore chain morphology and spore surface, 62 of the 70 isolates were identified as distinct. Fifty isolates from the 62 distinct colony were chosen for the antifungal activity based on their capacity to endure salt concentrations over 1M. Rhizoctonia solani, a fungus pathogen, was tested against each of the 50 identified strains. Rhizoctonia solani, a fungus, was resistant to about 36% of the isolates. AMET 307, AMET 308 and AMET 307, AMET 311 and AMET 315 exhibited the highest level of antifungal activity against Rhizoctonia solani. Using 16s rRNA sequencing, this effective antifungal strain was further identified as the Streptomycetes rochei AMET 311 strain (KT334600).