Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor. J. Mycol.)
Indexed in SCOPUS, KCI, DOAJ
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED
pISSN 0253-651X
eISSN 2383-5249
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Isolation and Characterization of an Antifungal and Plant Growth-Promoting Microbe

1Microbial Institute for Fermentation Industry (MIFI), Sunchang 56048, Korea
2Department of Agricultural Biological Chemistry, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Chonnam
National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea

Correspondence to jdy2534@korea.kr, hblee@jnu.ac.kr

Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor J Mycol) December, 2021, 49(4):441-454.
https://doi.org/10.4489/KJM.20210043
Accepted: December 15, 2021; Revised: December 14, 2021; Received: September 08, 2021
Published: December, 2021.
© 2021 THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF MYCOLOGY.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Fungal diseases including anthracnose, stem rot, blight, wilting, and root rot of crops are caused by phytopathogens such as Colletotrichum species, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Phytophthora species, and Fusarium oxysporum and F. solani which threaten the production of chili pepper. In this study, to identify biological control agents (BCAs) of phytopathogenic fungi, potentially useful Bacillus species were isolated from the field soils. We screened out five Bacillus strains with antagonistic capacity that are efficiently inhibiting the growth of phytopathogenic fungi. Bacillus species were characterized by the production of extracellular enzymes, siderophores, and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Furthermore, the influence of bacterial strains on the plant growth promoting activity and seedling vigor index were assessed using Brassica juncea as a model plant. Inoculation with Bacillus subtilis SRCM 121379 significantly increased the length of B. juncea shoots and roots by 45.6% and 52.0%, respectively. Among the bacterial isolates, Bacillus subtilis SRCM 121379 showed the superior enzyme activities, antagonistic capacity and plant growth promoting effects. Based on the experimental results, Bacillus subtilis SRCM 121379 (GenBank accession no. NR027552) was finally selected as a BCA candidate.

Keywords

Antifungal activity, Bacillus subtilis, Biological control agent (BCA), Plant growth promoting bacteria, Screening

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