Fungicidal potential of PGPR bacterial consortium on plant protein modulation in tomato

We isolated 30-bacterial isolates from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plant rhizosphere

roots and screened their ability to mitigate the pathogenic effects of Fusarium oxysporum fungus

on tomato plant. Initially 12-isolates among 30-were selected based on their antagonistic activity

against Fusarium and5-isolates exhibited strong Plant Growth-Promoting characteristics, were

further selected and identified using 16S rDNA analysis. The PGPR consortium was prepared

comprising all 5-selected isolates and was used in this study to analyse its positive effects on the

tomato plant against Fusarium infection. The PGPR consortium was applied in the roots15-days

before Fusarium inoculation and its effect was analysed for 3-days post-infection. PGPR-treated

plants significantly improved all measured parameters like total phenolics, total proteins and five

different PR proteins like peroxidise, β-1,3-Glucanase and chitinase, while the combined PGPR

and Fusarium treatment gave consistently higher yield. These findings suggested that PGPR pre-

treatments, enhanced the resistance against the Fusarium infection.