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Ginger rhizome priming with lipopeptide-producing endophytic Bacillus species to control ginger soft-rot disease caused by Pythium myriotylum

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Abstract

Antagonistic endophytes previously isolated from the wild ginger congener, Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith were evaluated in the present study towards identifying candidate biocontrol agents (BCAs) for control of soft-rot disease caused by Pythium myriotylum. Bacillus isolates designated ZzER11 (B. amyloliquefaciens) and ZzER62 (B. subtilis), showing significant inhibition (> 80%) of P. myriotylum were characterized for production of lipopeptide (LP) biosurfactant. PCR screening for LP biosynthetic genes and MALDI-TOF–MS analyses revealed the production of surfactin, iturin and fengmycin (1010–1550 m/z range) classes of LPs by the selected Bacillus spp. Microscopic examination of P. myriotylum hyphae following confrontation experiments with ZzER11 and ZzER62 showed morphological distortions to mycelia including hyphal shrinkage and plasmolysis. Absolute inhibition of P. myriotylum hyphal growth was observed in presence of ZzER11 and ZzER62 LP extracts following disc diffusion assays. Biocontrol potential of ZzER11 and ZzER62 against the soft-rot disease was confirmed by priming ginger rhizomes with the endophytes. Results revealed effective control of soft-rot disease in endophyte-primed ginger rhizome even at high P. myriotylum zoospore concentration (104 zoospores/ g soil) with sprouts emerging after 30 days of infection (doi) and forming healthy plantlets. The selected antagonistic endophytic isolates from Z. zerumbet thus offer a solution for imparting resistance to ginger cultivars through microbiome manipulation.

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Data availability

Authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of the study are included in the manuscript. Raw data that support the findings of the present study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful for the assistance of the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore for the MALDI-TOF-MS analysis. PP also thanks MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Govt. of India) for the research fellowship received. Authors also thank the anonymous reviewer's for their insightful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Calicut, 673 601, India

    P. Princy & Sharmila Raj

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Central University of Kerala (CUK), Kasaragod, Kerala, 671 320, India

    Aswati R. Nair

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  1. P. Princy
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Correspondence to Aswati R. Nair.

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Communicated by M. J. Reigosa.

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Princy, P., Nair, A.R. & Raj, S. Ginger rhizome priming with lipopeptide-producing endophytic Bacillus species to control ginger soft-rot disease caused by Pythium myriotylum. Acta Physiol Plant 45, 70 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-023-03544-5

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