Novel antagonistic bacteria as prospective agents for the biocontrol of some plant bacterial diseases

Biological control of plant pathogenic bacteria is the latest method and alternative tool to application of chemicals in order to exclude or reduce the effect of pathogens. During the last four decades efforts have been continued to improve biological control agents as commercial products for use in disease control (Baker and Cook (1974), Cook and Baker (1983), Cook (1993). The effectivity of biological control agents on numerous plant-pathogen combinations was demonstrated by several authors (Tzeng et al.(1994), Nishioka et al. (1997), Biró et al.(1998), and Vanneste (2000), Production of antimicrobial metabolites by selected antagonists was also confirmed by Amellal et al. (1998) and Vanneste, (2000). Kearn and Hale (1995) demonstrated persistance and establishment of antagonists in its orginal host apple plant. Reduction of fire blight disease severity by antagonistic bacteria was demonstrated by Vanneste,(1996, 2000). Bacillus subtilis is well known as biocontrol agent in soil conditions (Bochow, 1992). Pantoea agglomerans is an epiphytic as well as a soil inhabitants too Brenner (1983) and Vanneste (2000) The strategy of this study has been to find antagonists against different types of diseases in economically important crops such as fire blight caused by Erwinia amylovora in pomaceous species Hevesi (1996) and Németh, (1999), bacterial spots diseases caused by Xanthomonas vesicatoria strains in pepper and tomato and bacterial canker caused by Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis in tomato in order to reduce the losses caused by these diseases Klement 1959 (in. Ubrizsy,1965). (.)