Nematicidal activities of bacterial volatiles and components from two marine bacteria, Pseudoalteromonas marina strain H-42 and Vibrio atlanticus strain S-16, against the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus

Abstract

Bacterial volatiles represent an important source for new natural nematicidal compounds that may be developed as novel nematicidal agents to control plant-parasitic nematodes. In this study, two marine bacteria,Pseudoalteromonas marinastrain H-42 andVibrio atlanticusstrain S-16, were isolated from seawater and the bay scallop (Argopecten irradians), respectively, collected from the subtidal beds at Qingdao, China.In vitrobioassays indicated that culture supernatants of the two bacteria displayed strong nematicidal activities with corrected mortalities of more than 93% after 24 h exposure against the pine wood nematode (PWN),Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Maximal nematicidal activity was exhibited by culture supernatants of the two marine bacteria incubated at 15-20°C for 3 days in Zobell 2216E medium prepared with 100% seawater and initial pH 6.0-7.0, inoculating 19-h-old cultures. Through analysis using solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, the volatiles produced by the two bacteria were shown to contain mainly dimethyl disulphide, benzaldehyde, dimethyl trisulphide,tert-butylamine, acetone and dimethylamine, N-(diisopropylphosphino)methyl-. Results from nematicidal assay using pure commercial compounds instead of the candidate volatiles demonstrated that the four volatile compounds, dimethyl trisulphide (LC90 = 0.060 mmol l−1), benzaldehyde (LC90 = 0.309 mmol l−1), dimethyl disulphide (LC90 = 0.162 mmol l−1) andtert-butylamine (LC90 = 0.366 mmol l−1), showed strong nematicidal activities against PWN. This is the first report on the nematicidal activity of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from marine microorganisms. This study indicates that the nematicidal VOC produced by marine bacteria are potential substitutes for current chemical control options of pine wilt disease caused by PWN which greatly threatens global forest resources.