No abstract

Soil that is suppressive to disease caused by fungal pathogens is an interesting source to target for novel chitinases that might be contributing towards disease suppression. In this study, we screened for chitinase genes, in a phytopathogen-suppressive soil in three ways: (1) from a metagenomic library constructed from microbial cells extracted from soil, (2) from directly extracted DNA and (3) from bacterial isolates with antifungal and chitinase activities. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) of chitinase genes revealed differences in amplified chitinase genes from the metagenomic library and the directly extracted DNA, but approximately 40% of the identified chitinase terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) were found in both sources. All of the chitinase TRFs from the isolates were matched to TRFs in the directly extracted DNA and the metagenomic library. The most abundant chitinase TRF in the soil DNA and the metagenomic library corresponded to the TRF(103) of the isolate Streptomyces mutomycini and/or Streptomyces clavifer. There were good matches between T-RFLP profiles of chitinase gene fragments obtained from different sources of DNA. However, there were also differences in both the chitinase and the 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP patterns depending on the source of DNA, emphasizing the lack of complete coverage of the gene diversity by any of the approaches used.

The rhizosphere competence of 15 in vitro antagonists of Rhizoctonia solani was determined 4 weeks after sowing inoculated lettuce seeds into nonsterile soil. Based on the colonization ability determined by selective plating, eight strains were selected for growth chamber experiments to determine their efficacy in controlling bottom rot caused by R. solani on lettuce. Although in the first experiment all antagonists colonized the rhizosphere of lettuce with CFU counts above 2 x 10(6) g(-1) of root fresh weight, only four isolates significantly reduced disease severity. In subsequent experiments involving these four antagonists, only Pseudomonas jessenii RU47 showed effective and consistent disease suppression. Plate counts and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprints of Pseudomonas-specific gacA genes amplified from total community DNA confirmed that RU47 established as the dominant Pseudomonas population in the rhizosphere of inoculated lettuce plants. Furthermore, the DGGE fingerprint revealed that R. solani AG1-IB inoculation severely affected the bacterial and fungal community structure in the rhizosphere of lettuce and that these effects were much less pronounced in the presence of RU47. Although the exact mechanism of antagonistic activity and the ecology of RU47 remain to be further explored, our results suggest that RU47 is a promising agent to control bottom rot of lettuce.

Se llevó a cabo un experimento de invernadero para evaluar la inf luencia de la inoculación simple y combinada, efectuada con las bacterias rizosféricas Sinorhizobium y Azospirillum, en dos variedades de trigo. Materiales y métodos según lo descrito en las metodologías convencionales para este campo de estudio. El diseño experimental fue completamente aleatorizado, con 4 réplicas y 10 tratamientos. Análisis estadístico varianza bifactorial. Se utilizó tratamiento fertilizado con NH4NO3 (150 ppm/kg suelo). Se evaluó contenido de clorofila foliar, peso seco aéreo, peso seco radical, longitud del tallo y germinación. En caso de aparecer diferencias, se determinaron mediante la prueba de Duncan, y las diferencias entre las variedades con t-Student. Se concluye que la inoculación combinada de la cepaA2 (Sinorhizobium meliloti) con la cepa N7 (Azospirillum zeae), fue la de mayor influencia positiva en el contenido de clorofila de las plantas. Por otra parte, existió una alta diferenciación entre las dos variedades de trigo en la longitud del tallo, peso seco aéreo y peso seco radical. Los resultados en peso seco aéreo y peso seco radical, al combinarse los dos factores estudiados, dependieron notablemente de las características varietales de la planta y del efecto significativo de la población autóctona de rizobacterias. La germinación de las plantas no estuvo vinculada a ninguno de los factores aplicados en el experimento.

No abstract