Screening and identifying antagonistic bacteria against Rhizoctonia solani and their biological control effects on soil-born damping-off disease of cucumber
Abstract:In this study, more than 400 bacterial strains were isolated from rhizosphere soil of cucumber, and the dual culture method was used to screen bacterial antagonists against Rhizoctonia solani. Sixteen strains of bacterial antagonists were isolated and their inhabiting zone against R.solani ranged from 0.81 cm to 1.93 cm. Based on the results of morphologic characteristics, physiological and biochemical properties and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA, three strains (N33, N34 and N43) with inhabiting zone more than 1.6 cm were identified as Pseudomonas sp, Bacillus sp. and Bacillus sp., respectively. Through application of the three antagonists in cropping substrate of cucumber seedlings, their promotion effect on cucumber seedlings and control efficiency on damping-off disease were tested. All of the three isolates could promote the growth of cucumber seedlings and suppress cucumber seedlings from damping-off disease. Among of them, N43 showed the best effect on increasing the fresh weight of shoot by 62.16% and preventing the disease with a control efficiency of 62%, compared with control.