Che Mohd Ramli, Neni kartini

Mohamad, Rosli

Sijam, Kamaruzaman

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

UPM Research Report 1998: Volume 2SCREENING OF BACTERIA FOR BIOLOGICALCONTROL OF BROWN PATCH AND PYTHIUMBLIGHT DISEASES OF TURFGRASSKamaruzaman Sijam, Rosli B. Mohamad andNeni Kartini Che Mohd RamliFaculty of AgricultureUniversiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor,MalaysiaKeywords: brown patch, Pythium ,blight, turf diseases,biological control.IntroductionBrown patch disease and Pythium blight disease caused byRhizoctonia solani and Pythium aphanidermatum, respec-tively, are the two major soil-borne turfgrass diseases occur-ring world-wide. Currently the most widely used controlmeasure is fungicidal treatment on infected turfgrasses.However, the frequent and prolonged use of fungicides havebecome problematic due to adverse effect on non-target or-ganisms as well as creating fungicide resistant population ofthe pathogen. Biological control is an alternative and poten-tially attractive strategy of reducing fungicide input to highlymanaged turfgrasses. This study was therefore conducted todetermine the biological control potential of bacterial isolatesobtained from turfgrass grown areas against brown patch andPythium blight diseases of turfgrasses.Materials and MethodsBacterialisolates were obtained from thatch and soil of Cy-nodon dactylon cv. Tifdwarf, taken from greens, fairwaysand tees, by removing lO-cm diameter cores from sympto-matic areas to a depth of 6 - 10 cm with the aid of a cup cut-ter. Bacterial isolates were screened for their ability to sup-press the growth of R. solani and P. aphanidertnatum. Thedual-culture technique was used where 5-mm mycelia plugobtained from the leading edge of a 5-day old culture of eachfungal pathogen was taken and placed at the centre of theplate. Individual bacterial isolate was then streaked at 4 op-po site locations 2.5 cm from the mycelial plug. PDA wasused in this study since both microorganisms can grow wellon this medium. The radial growth of inhibition fungus wasmeasured daily. Bacterial isolates showing antagonistic ac-tivity were identified using the Biolog Identification System(Biolog Inc., Hayward California) while R solani' and P.aphanidermatum were identified based on their .morphologi-cal characteristics.Results and DiscussionIsolation of bacteria from thatch and soil of C dactylon cv.tifdwarf resulted in total bacterial count ranging from 0.97 -2.5 x 103 cfu/g of sample, which can be grouped into 10 dif-ferent colony types. Out of the 10 colony types, only fiveisolates were found to have' antagonistic activity against R.solani and lor P. aphanidermatum when tested using the dualculture techniques. All of these bacteria were isolated fromthe thatch. The bacterial isolates were identified as Bacillusmegaterium, Burkholderia cepacia, Chromobacterium vio-laceum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens.56B. megaterium, B. cepacia and P aeruginosa were found toinhibit the growth of both R. solani and P. aphanidennatumwhile S. marcescens and C violaceum were found to inhibitthe growth of only P. aphanidermatum. However, when theradial growth of both pathogens was compared, it was notedthat the growth inhibition of P. aphanidematum by B. ce-pacia and P. aeruginosa was lower than the growth inhibi-tion of R. solani. B. megaterium had been reported to be apotential biological control, agent against R. solani on soy-beans as well as Phomopsis sp., Pestalotia sp. and Alternariaalternata on Litchi (Korsten et al 1993). Optimisation stud-ies done by Korstan on the postharvest pathogens revealedthat the postharvest decay was more effectively reduced withB. megaterium applied as a fine spray compared with dip ap-plication. Even though B. cepacia (Pseudomonas cepacia) is'the causal agent of the onion sour skin disease, it had beenreported to inhibit the growth of many fungal pathogens in-cluding Sclerotium rolfsii and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.raphani (Sanchez et al, 1994). It has also been reported to bea good biological control agent against Rhizoctonia stem rotdisease of Euphorbia pulcherima caused by R. solani (Cart- .wright and Benson, 1995). P. aeruginosa had been reportedto be able to reduce the infection of R. solani and Macro-phomina phaseolina on chickpeas. This bacterium inhibitedthe growth of the pathogen through the production of sali-cylic acid and siderophores production. S. marcescens hadbeen reported to be antagonistic to Phytophthora capsici invitro, able to reduce damping off of cultivated' cucumberseedling and suppressed summer patch symptom develop-ment on Poa pratensis caused by Magnaporthe poae (Ko-bashi et al. 1995). ' .ConclusionsFive isolates were found to haveantagonistic activity againstR. solani and lor P. aphanidermatum. All of these bacteriawere isolated from the thatch. The bacterial isolates wereidentified as Bacillus megaterium, Burkholderia cepacia,Chromobacterium violaceum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa andSerratia marcescens. B. megaterium, B. 'cepacia and Paeruginosa were found to inhibit the growth of both R. so-lani and P.' aphanidennatum while S. marcescens and C vio-laceum were found to inhibit the growth of only 'P.aphanidermatum.References'Cartwright, D.K., and Benson, D.M. 1995. Biological control ofRhizoctonia Stem Rot of Poinsettia in polyfoam rooting cubeswith Pseudomonas cepacia and Paecilomyces lilacinus., Biologi-cal control. 5: 23 7-244.Kobashi, D.Y., Guglielmori, M. and Clarke, B.B.. 1995.' lsolatio;~fthe chitinolytic bacteria Xanthomonas maltophilia and Serratiamarcescens as biological control agents for Summer Patch dis-ease of turfgrass. Soil biology and biochemistry. 27:1479-1487.Korsten, L., DeVilliers, E.E., DeJager, E.S., and, Van Harmelen,_M.W.S. 1993. Biological control of litchi fruit diseases .. SouthAfrican Litchi Growers'Association Yearbook. 5:36-40.Sanchez, A., Echavez, B.R., and Schroder, E.C. 1994. Pseudomonascepacia, a potential biofungicide for root rot pathogen of beans.Journal of Ag.of the University of Puerto Rico. 78: 55-57.Supported by IRPA Grant OI'()2-04-OO24

Screening of bacteria for biological control of brown patch and pythium blight diseases of turfgrass

http://psasir.upm.edu.my/41855/1/Screening%20of%20bacteria%20for%20biological%20control%20of%20brown%20patch%20and%20pythium%20blight%20diseases%20of%20turfgrass.pdf

Screening of bacteria for biological control of brown patch and pythium blight diseases of turfgrass

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository