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Bacillomycin L and surfactin contribute synergistically to the phenotypic features of Bacillus subtilis 916 and the biocontrol of rice sheath blight induced by Rhizoctonia solani

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
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Abstract

The antagonistic activity of lipopeptides in Bacillus subtilis 916 has been well documented, yet relatively little is known about their mechanism in biofilm formation and environmental colonization. This study sought to examine the interaction of B. subtilis 916 on Rhizoctonia solani-infected rice sheath to elucidate the mechanism of colonization on plant leaves. Results showed that the mutants Δbac, Δsrf, and Δsrf + bac of B. subtilis 916, deficient in bacillomycin L and surfactin production, respectively, not only altered colony morphology but also changed swarming motility, reduced antagonistic activity, and decreased biofilm formation. In particular, biofilm formation in mutant Δbac, not Δsrf or Δsrf + bac, were restored with addition of surfactin and bacillomycin L at 10 and 50 μg/mL, respectively. Moreover, surfactin and bacillomycin L were able to restore or enhance swarming motility in the corresponding mutants at 10 μg/mL, respectively. With the aid of green fluorescent protein tagging, it was demonstrated that B. subtilis 916 formed a robust biofilm on the rice sheath blight lesion and colonized well on R. solani-infected rice sheath, while its corresponding mutants performed poorly. These observations also correlated with the rice cultivar pot experiments, in which B. subtilis 916 exhibited greater biocontrol than its mutants. Our results suggest that surfactin and bacillomycin L contribute differently but synergistically to the biocontrol of rice sheath blight in B. subtilis 916 through its antifungal activity, biofilm formation, and colonization.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mr. John Truong and Dr. Jiabin Ji for the linguistic revision and critical review of the manuscript. This work was supported by the National High-tech R&D Program of China (2011AA10A201), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30900929), and the Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (grant no. CX(12)5001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 50 Zhongling Street, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Chuping Luo, Huafei Zhou, Jincheng Zou, Xiaoyu Wang, Rongsheng Zhang, Yaping Xiang & Zhiyi Chen

  2. College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agriculture University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Chuping Luo, Huafei Zhou, Yaping Xiang & Zhiyi Chen

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  1. Chuping Luo
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  2. Huafei Zhou
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  3. Jincheng Zou
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Correspondence to Chuping Luo or Zhiyi Chen.

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Luo, C., Zhou, H., Zou, J. et al. Bacillomycin L and surfactin contribute synergistically to the phenotypic features of Bacillus subtilis 916 and the biocontrol of rice sheath blight induced by Rhizoctonia solani . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 1897–1910 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-6195-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-6195-4

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