Inhibition activity of tomato endophyte Bacillus velezensis FQ-G3 against postharvest Botrytis cinerea.

Grey mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is a widespread and harmful disease of tomato. Biocontrol agents derived from endophytic bacteria are known to hold great potential for inhibition of phytopathogen. We conducted this study to explore the tomato endophytic strains with inhibition activity against B. cinerea. Endophytic strain Bacillus velezensis FQ-G3 exhibited excellent inhibition activity against B. cinerea. Inhibitory effects against B. cinerea were investigated both in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro assays displayed that FQ-G3 could significantly inhibit mycelia growth with inhibition rate of 85.93%, and delay conidia germination of B. cinerea. Tomato fruit inoculated with B. velezensis FQ-G3 revealed lower grey mold during treatment. The antifungal activity was attributed to activation of defense-related enzymes, as evidenced by the higher levels of peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, and phenylalanine ammonia lyase in tomatoes after inoculation. In addition, scanning electron microscope was applied to elucidate the interaction between endophytes and pathogen, and bacterial colonization and antibiosis appeared to be the underlying mechanisms that FQ-G3 could suppress growth of B. cinerea. Collectively, our present results suggested that FQ-G3 may potentially be useful as a biocontrol agent in postharvest tomatoes.

First Report of the Occurrence of Diaporthe nobilis Causing Postharvest Fruit Rot on 'Shine Muscat' Grape in Yuncheng, China.

In recent years, 'Shine Muscat' (Vitis labruscana × Vitis vinifera) has been the most popular table grape among consumers in Asian countries (Choi et al., 2021). In November 2020, fruit rot was observed in packing house 2 months after cold-stored in Yuncheng (35°16'N, 111°08'E), Shanxi Province, China. Of 38 boxes (5 kg per box) grape were selected randomly from the packing house with a stock of 7,000 kg. The incidence of grape rot was 71.5%, observed in 143 of the 200 clusters sampled. The diseased fruit showed symptoms including pedicel browning, and extending lesions and softening of berries. Samples (1 mm2) cut from the border between diseased and healthy tissue were surface sterilized with 70% ethanol for 1 min, then rinsed with sterile distilled water thrice, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plate 25 ° C in the dark for 5 days. After subculturing for three times, 26 isolates with a similar type of fungal colony were obtained. Colonies on PDA was initially white fluffy aerial, but gradually turned grey. Pycnidia were black and globes, producing α and ß conidia. α conidia abundant, aseptate, hyaline, ellipsoid, both ends obtuse, biguttulate, 6.52~9.05 µm×2.19~3.25 µm (n=50). ß conidia abundant, hyaline, aseptate, filiform, flexuous to J-shaped, 22.79~36.75 µm×1.24~1.92 µm (n=50). For further identification, phylogenetic analysis of combined internal transcribed spacer (ITS), ß-tubulin (TUB), translation elongation factor (EF1-α) and calmodulin (CAL) datasets were carried out. The representative isolate SS1 and SS2 were selected for identification. Primers ITS1 and ITS4 (White et al. 1990) were used to amplify the ITS region. The gene fragments of TUB, CAL and EF1-α were amplified by the primers Bt2a/Bt2b (Glass and Donaldson 1995), CAL228F/CAL737R and EF1-728F/EF1-986R, respectively (Carbone and Kohn 1999). The sequences were deposited in GenBank (SS1: MW644526 for ITS, OQ718912 - 4 for CAL, TEF-1α, and TUB, respectively; SS2: MW644527 for ITS, OQ718915 -7 for CAL, TEF-1α, and TUB, respectively). BLASTn analysis of the NCBI database indicated that the ITS, TUB, EF1-α, and CAL sequences had very high nucleotide homology (98 to 100%) to ex-type sequences for D. nobilis (CBS 116953, Gomes et al., 2013) in GenBank (ITS: KC343147, TUB: KC344115, EF1-α: KC343873, and CAL: KC343389). Phylogenetic tree based on the combined sequences revealed that the two isolates clustered well with D. nobilis. To confirm its pathogenicity, 30 fresh-harvested 'Shine Muscat' grape fruits were used to mock inoculate. Wounds (5 mm wide by 2 mm deep) were created uniformly at the equator of the grape fruit with a sterile puncher and inoculated with mycelial plugs (5 mm in diameter) prepared from 7-day-old fungal cultures grown on PDA (Wild 1994). The control fruits were inoculated with agar disks without mycelium. Inoculated fruits were placed in a chamber with the 80% relative humidity at 25°C for 8 days. After inoculation, all treated fruits turned brown, with significant necrotic lesions; fruits in control showed no symptoms. Fungal colonies reisolated from inoculated fruits had similar morphological characteristics as D. nobilis. Diaporthe spp. are responsible for diseases on a wide range of plants hosts, causing root and fruit rots, dieback, cankers, leaf spots, blights, decay and wilt (Gomes et al., 2013). D. nobilis causing postharvest grape rot can seriously restrict the development of local grape industry.