Biocontrol of Phytophthora blight and anthracnose in pepper by sequentially selected antagonistic rhizobacteria against Phytophthora capsici

We previously developed a sequential screening procedure to select antagonistic bacterial strains against Phytophthora capsici in pepper plants. In this study, we used a modified screening procedure to select effective biocontrol strains against P. capsici; we evaluated the effect of selected strains on Phytophthora blight and anthracnose occurrence and fruit yield in pepper plants under field and plastic house conditions from 2007 to 2009. We selected four potential biocontrol strains (Pseudomonas otitidis YJR27, P. putida YJR92, Tsukamurella tyrosinosolvens YJR102, and Novosphingobium capsulatum YJR107) among 239 bacterial strains. In the 3-year field tests, all the selected strains significantly (P < 0.05) reduced Phytophthora blight without influencing rhizosphere microbial populations; they showed similar or better levels of disease suppressions than in metalaxyl treatment in the 2007 and 2009 tests, but not in the 2008 test. In the 2-year plastic house tests, all the selected strains significantly (P < 0.05) reduced anthracnose incidence in at least one of the test years, but their biocontrol activities were variable. In addition, strains YJR27, YJR92, and YJR102, in certain harvests, increased pepper fruit numbers in field tests and red fruit weights in plastic house tests. Taken together, these results indicate that the screening procedure is rapid and reliable for the selection of potential biocontrol strains against P. capsici in pepper plants. In addition, these selected strains exhibited biocontrol activities against anthracnose, and some of the strains showed plant growth-promotion activities on pepper fruit.