Abstract
Phytopathogenic diseases are a major concern in modern agriculture, and for decades, pesticides have been used to prevent potential damage. Bacillus megaterium is proposed as a biological controlling agent, and gene expression of the lipopeptide genes FEND and ITUDI was assessed using RT-qPCR. Inhibition effects of B. megaterium on Alternaria sp. and Botrytis sp. were examined over a period of nine days, which confirmed the potential use of this bacterium to counteract these two pathogens. In addition, expression of FEND and ITUDI genes was assessed over nine days in the aforementioned dual cultures and inhibition tests. FEND expression in B. megaterium increased 20.16-fold in response to Alternaria sp., and ITUDI expression increased 3.20-fold in response to Botrytis sp. on day five of incubation. These results were corroborated by gene expression data obtained from B. megaterium during fermentation, where FEND and ITUDI gene expression increased 95.14- and 18.70-fold, respectively. In conclusion, B. megaterium can increase lipopeptide synthesis when exposed to these particular phytopathogens and can significantly increase the respective expression during fermentation.
Highlights
Agriculture is one of the most important economic fields
The results of the current study showed that B. megaterium may be a promising biocontroller of Alternaria sp. as it showed upregulation of FEND expression when challenged with this phytopathogenic fungus
FEND and ITUDI expression during fermentation of B. megaterium was evaluated using RT-qPCR on days 1, 3, 5, and 9 (Table 4), and we observed that expression of both genes significantly increased until day 5 of fermentation; it was necessary to perform an analysis of variance (ANOVA)
Summary
Agriculture is one of the most important economic fields It is presented with serious problems, such as economic and production losses owing to diseases affecting numerous types of crops during growth and after harvest, most of which are caused by phytopathogenic fungi[1]. A large number of pathogens that cause severe plant diseases in the most important staple crops belong to the fungal genera, Penicillium, Botrytis, Diplodia, Mucor, Phomopsis, Fusarium, Rhizopus, Monilinia, Alternaria, and Colletotrichum[2]. Botrytis can infect 596 vascular plants, of which strawberry plants are affected. This fungus occurs in various geographical areas, ranging from tropical to temperate and cold zone environments[3,4]. Alternaria sp. causes diseases in tomato plants and in plants of the genus Brassica[5]
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