Efficiency of durum wheat seeds biopriming by rhizobacteria in the biocontrol of Fusarium culmorum and Fusarium chlamydosporum infecting durum wheat in Algeria

Abstract

In this study, 16 strains belonging to genera Bacillus and Pseudomonas were tested in vitro and in greenhouse on “Waha” wheat variety against two isolates of Fusarium culmorum and one isolate of Fusarium chlamydosporum. The results of the direct confrontation showed that the most effective bacterial strains were Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BB19 (BB19) and Bacillus atrophaeus B16 (B16), which inhibited the mycelial growth of the three fungi by more than 60%. These two Bacillus strains were able to reduce the conidial germination rate by more than 80%. They showed also, significant efficiency in protecting the coleoptile length and in reducing the infections rate of the vegetative and root system in terms of length and fresh weight. The B16 strain was able to protect the wheat seedlings from Fusarium damages by more than 50% when artificially infected with FC1and, the BB19 strain gave the same effect but with the FC2 strain.