Mitigation of tobacco bacteria wilt with microbial degradation of phenolic allelochemicals

Abstract

Long-term continuous monoculture cropping of tobacco leads to high incidence of tobacco bacterial wilt (TBW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, which threatening world tobacco production and causing great economy loss. In this study, a safe and effective way to control TBW by microbial degradation of phenolic allelochemicals (PAs) was explored. Eleven kinds of PAs were identified from continuous tobacco cropping soil. These PAs exhibited various effects on the growth, chemotaxis and biofilm formation of R. solanacearum. Then we isolated eight strains of Bacillus, one strain of Brucella, one strain of Enterobacter and one strain of Stenotrophomonas capable of degrading these PAs. The results of degradation assay showed that these isolated strains could degrade PAs both in culture solutions and soil. Besides, the incidence of TBW caused by R. solanacearum and deteriorated by PAs were significantly decreased by treating with these degrading strains. Furthermore, six out of eleven isolated strains were combined to degrade all the identified PAs and ultimately sharply reduced the incidence of TBW by 61.44% in pot experiment. In addition, the combined degrading bacteria could promote the plant growth and defense response. This study will provide a promising strategy for TBW control in tobacco production.

Microbial degradation of plant toxins

“…Fungi Phomopsis liquidambari isolated from Bischofia polycarpa , degraded 4‐HBA using three enzymes: 4‐HBA hydroxylase, 3,4‐dihydroxybenzoic acid decarboxylase and catechol 1,2‐dioxygenase to cis , cis ‐muconic acid TCA cycle (Chen et al, 2011). Furthermore, rumen gut microbiota and fungus Aspergillus niger degraded toxic ferulic acid, caffeic acid, and coumaric acid, and multiple bacterial strains, including Bacillus sp., Brucella sp., and Enterobacter sp., isolated from tobacco cropping soil degraded in vitro eleven phenolic compounds (Chang et al, 2022; Kim et al, 2021; Lubbers et al, 2021). Likewise, the degradation potential for toxic phenolic compounds has been determined in the gut microbiota of the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella .…”