Sequential selection and efficacy of antagonistic rhizobacteria for controlling Phytophthora blight of pepper

This research was conducted to develop a sequential screening procedure for bacteria antagonistic against Phytophthora capsici, and to evaluate control efficacy by candidate antagonistic bacteria selected by this procedure against Phytophthora blight of pepper in the field. A total of 231 bacterial strains were isolated from soils and roots of cucumber, pepper, and tomato plants grown in fields at 12 locations in Korea in 2000 and 2001. From these, 88 strains were pre-selected using a radicle assay. These strains were then screened in a seedling assay with 2-week-old pepper seedlings inoculated with 1000 zoospores of P. capsici g^-1 potting mixture, a concentration which caused complete death of the seedlings. Based on the results of this screen, 15 potentially antagonistic strains with at least 50% control efficacy of seedling infection by P. capsici were selected and further tested in 5-week-old pepper plants. In the in planta trials, four bacterial strains, KJ1R5, KJ2C12, KJ9C8, and 11S16, consistently showed significant (P=0.05) disease suppression against P. capsici infection and were examined as candidate biocontrol agents for their antagonistic effects in the field by artificial inoculation in 2001 and 2002. Plants treated with the bacterial strains KJ1R5, KJ2C12, and KJ9C8 had significantly (P=0.05) lower disease severity and incidence than untreated controls in at least one test. These field test results have demonstrated that the radicle and seedling assays are very effective as part of the screening procedure to select candidate antagonistic bacteria against P. capsici on pepper. Therefore, effective biocontrol agents for Phytophthora blight of pepper could be selected through the sequential screening procedure developed in this study.