Journal
MICROORGANISMS
Volume 9, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9122508
Keywords
endophytes; plant growth promotion; biological control; postharvest biocontrol; biosynthetic gene clusters; Bacillus halotolerans; plant defense elicitors; grape; tomato; biopriming
Categories
Funding
- Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs [2018SE01300000]
- European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Program Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning [MIS-5000432]
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Isolate Hil4, a novel plant growth promoting and biocontrol agent, was derived from leaves of Hypericum hircinum and belongs to Bacillus halotolerans. It possesses a variety of plant growth promoting traits and antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea, making it a promising candidate for future biostimulant and biological control agent development.
The endophytic bacterial strain Hil4 was isolated from leaves of the medicinal plant Hypericum hircinum. It exhibited antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea and a plethora of plant growth promoting traits in vitro. Whole genome sequencing revealed that it belongs to Bacillus halotolerans and possesses numerous secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters and genes involved in plant growth promotion, colonization, and plant defense elicitation. The Mojavensin cluster was present in the genome, making this strain novel among plant-associated B. halotolerans strains. Extracts of secreted agar-diffusible compounds from single culture secretome extracts and dual cultures with B. cinerea were bioactive and had the same antifungal pattern on TLC plates after bioautography. UHPLC-HRMS analysis of the single culture secretome extract putatively annotated the consecutively produced antimicrobial substances and ISR elicitors. The isolate also proved efficient in minimizing the severity of gray mold post-harvest disease on table grape berries, as well as cherry tomatoes. Finally, it positively influenced the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 and Solanum lycopersicum var. Chondrokatsari Messinias after seed biopriming in vitro. Overall, these results indicate that the B. halotolerans strain Hil4 is a promising novel plant growth promoting and biocontrol agent, and can be used in future research for the development of biostimulants and/or biological control agents.
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