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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1396044
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights in Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants: 2023 View all 9 articles

Endophytic Bacillus velezensis XS142 is an efficient antagonist for Verticillium Wilt of Potato

Provisionally accepted
Min Li Min Li 1Jianfeng Yang Jianfeng Yang 1Haoyu Li Haoyu Li 2Yating Wang Yating Wang 1Xu Cheng Xu Cheng 3Guodong Han Guodong Han 4Ton Bisseling Ton Bisseling 4Jun Zhao Jun Zhao 1*
  • 1 Laboratory of Molecular Phytopathology, Horticultural and Plant Protection Department, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
  • 2 The Modern Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Development Center of Bayannur, Bayan Nur, China
  • 3 Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
  • 4 Key Lab of Grassland Resources of the Ministry of Education of China, College of Grassland, Resources and Environment, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Potato Verticillium Wilt (PVW) caused by Verticillium dahliae is a vascular disease, that seriously affects potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and quality worldwide. V. dahliae occupies the vascular bundle and therefore it cannot efficiently be treated with fungicides. Further, the application of these pesticides causes serious environmental problems. Therefore, it is of great importance to find environmentally friendly biological control methods. In this study, bacterial strains were isolated from agricultural lands on which potato had been cultured for five years. Five strains with a broadspectrum antagonistic activity were selected. Among these five strains, Bacillus velezensis XS142 showed the highest antagonistic activity. To study the mechanism of XS142, by which this strain might confer tolerance to V. dahliae in potato, the genome of strain XS142 was sequenced. This showed that its genome has a high level of sequence identity with the model strain B. velezensis FZB42 as the OrthoANI (Average Nucleotide Identity by Orthology) value is 98%. The fungal suppressing mechanisms of this model strain are well studied. Based on the genome comparison it can be predicted that XS142 has the potential to suppress the growth of V. dahliae by production of bacillomycin D, fengycin, and chitinase. Further, the transcriptomes of potatoes treated with XS142 were analyzed and this showed that XS142 does not induce ISR, but the expression of genes encoding peptides with antifungal activity. Here we showed that XS142 is an endophyte. Further, it is isolated from a field where potato had been cultured for several years. These properties give it a high potential to be used, in the future, as a biocontrol agent of PVW in agriculture.

    Keywords: Potato Verticillium Wilt, Verticillium dahliae, Bacillus velezensis, biological control, endophytic bacteria, Genome sequencing

    Received: 05 Mar 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Yang, Li, Wang, Cheng, Han, Bisseling and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jun Zhao, Laboratory of Molecular Phytopathology, Horticultural and Plant Protection Department, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China

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