Biocontrol features in an indigenous bacterial strain isolated from agricultural soil of Gujarat, India

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to test the biocontrol potential of a phosphate solubilizing bacterial strain, LK11 isolated from mungbean rhizosphere, in Gujarat, India. This strain besides solubilizing the insoluble P also demonstrated inhibition of Sclerotium rolfsii growth in agar plate and produced a volatile compound, HCN. During in vitro studies LK11 inhibited sclerotia germination by 40%. The most important contributing factor towards increased mungbean growth by reducing fungal attack was the enhanced production of antifungal compounds like PAL (47 mM/ml/mg of tissue), phenolics (90.2 μg/ml/mg) and flavonoids (184.2 mg/ ml/g) which is comparable to earlier reports available. Testing the efficiency of this strain in consortium culture alongwith some other PGPR strains and biocontrol microbes at multilocational fields is in offing.