Abstract
Austrocedrus chilensis [D.Don] Pic. Serm. et Bizarri (Pinales: Cupressaceae) is a keystone tree species in South America. Mortality of A. chilensis has been reported over most of its distribution in Argentina, and Phytophthora austrocedri has been identified as the causal agent. The aim of this work was to evaluate rhizospheric microorganisms present in A. chilensis roots as biocontrol agents against P. austrocedri. Mycelial growth of P. austrocedri was inhibited by seven fungal and four bacterial isolates in vitro. Interaction among isolates and P. austrocedri was microscopically studied. Isolates with high in vitro fungistatic or fungicide performance were molecularly identified and inoculated in plants to evaluate their ability to reduce the effect of the pathogen. Two of the bacterial isolates were able to reduce the symptoms in A. chilensis seedlings inoculated with P. austrocedri. These findings are promising since they may contribute to the development of a biocontrol strategy for the disease.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Administración de Parques Nacionales for kindly allowing us to work in National Parks. This work was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica of Argentina (grant number ANPCyT/FONCyT/PICT 1933/15).
Availability of data and material
The datasets generated in the current study are available in Genbank (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) and treebase (https://www.treebase.org/) repositories. Accession numbers for Genbank are given in the text, but sequences are still under revision and will be processed and released soon. Treebase data are available in http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S25799. It will become the permanent and resolvable resource locator after submission has been approved and the data will be made public (treebase policity). Reviewer access URL: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S25799?x-access-code=debff56123be4695744124a82ce07b3c&format=html. This URL provide reviewers with limited, read-only access to the data, even if this submission has not yet been approved and the data are not yet public.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica of Argentina (grant number ANPCyT/FONCyT/PICT 1933/15).
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Contributions
Conceptualization: J.A Marfetán, M.L. Velez, A.G. Greslebin.
Methodology: J.A Marfetán, M.L. Velez, A.G. Greslebin.
Formal Analysis: J.A Marfetán.
Investigation: J.A Marfetán, M.L. Velez; L.E. Taccari.
Resources: M.L. Velez, A.G. Greslebin, L.E. Taccari.
Writing – Original Draft: J.A Marfetán.
Writing – Review & Editing: All Authors.
Visualization: J.A Marfetán.
Supervision: M.L. Velez, A.G. Greslebin.
Project Administration: M.L. Velez, A.G. Greslebin.
Funding Acquisition: M.L. Velez, A.G. Greslebin.
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Online Resource 1
Phylogeny of Penicillium isolates illustrating species relationships inferred from joint ML analysis of Beta-tubulin gene analysis. Poorly aligned portions and divergent positions were deleted using Gblocks. Phylogenies were reconstructed using maximum likelihood (ML), Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum parsimony (MP) and complete deletion of gaps. The tree was drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site. Clades with high support (ML and MP bootstrap values ≥70% and BI posterior probabilities ≥0.85) were marked with asterisk. A- Phylogeny of Fasciculata section. B- Phylogeny of Ramosa section. C- Phylogeny of Aspergilloides section. D- Phylogeny of Exalicum section. (PNG 1278 kb)
Online Resource 2
Phylogeny of Trichoderma isolate illustrating species relationships of ITS region analysis. Poorly aligned portions and divergent positions were deleted using Gblocks. Phylogenies were reconstructed using maximum likelihood (ML), Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum parsimony (MP) and partial deletion (95%) of gaps. Clades with high support (ML and MP bootstrap values ≥70% and BI posterior probabilities ≥0.85) were marked with asterisk. No support for the node is indicated by a dash. The tree was drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site (PNG 348 kb)
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Marfetán, J.A., Greslebin, A.G., Taccari, L.E. et al. Rhizospheric microorganisms as potential biocontrol agents against Phytophthora austrocedri. Eur J Plant Pathol 158, 721–732 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-020-02113-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-020-02113-7