Abstract
This article provides a review of experiments conducted over a six-year period to develop a biological control system for insect-transmitted diseases in vegetables based on induced systemic resistance (ISR) mediated by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Initial experiments investigated the factors involved in treatment with PGPR led to ISR to bacterial wilt disease in cucumber caused by Erwinia tracheiphila. Results demonstrated that PGPR-ISR against bacterial wilt and feeding by the cucumber beetle vectors of E. trachiphiela were associated with reduced concentrations of cucurbitacin, a secondary plant metabolite and powerful beetle feeding stimulant. In other experiments, PGPR induced resistance against bacterial wilt in the absence of the beetle vectors, suggesting that PGPR-ISR protects cucumber against bacterial wilt not only by reducing beetle feeding and transmission of the pathogen, but also through the induction of other plant defense mechanisms after the pathogen has been introduced into the plant. Additional greenhouse and field experiments are described in which PGPR strains were selected for ISR against cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and tomato mottle virus (ToMoV). Although results varied from year to year, field-grown tomatoes treated with PGPR demonstrated a reduction in the development of disease symptoms, and often a reduction in the incidence of viral infection and an increase in tomato yield. Recent efforts on commercial development of PGPR are described in which biological preparations containing industrial formulated spores of PGPR plus chitosan were formulated and evaluated for use in a transplant soil mix system for developing plants that can withstand disease attack after transplanting in the field.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agrios GN (1978) Plant Pathology, Second Edition (p 468), Academic Press, New York
Alström S (1991) Induction of disease resistance in common bean susceptible to halo blight bacterial pathogen after seed bacterization with rhizosphere pseudomonads. Journal of General Applied Microbiology 37: 495-498
Backman PA, Wilson M and Murphy JF (1997) Bacteria for biological control of plant diseases. In: Rechcigl NA and Rechcigl JE (eds) Environmentally Safe Approaches to Crop Disease Control (pp 95-109) Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida
Balliano G, Caputo O, Viola F, Delprino L and Cattel L (1982) The transformation of 10α-cucurbita-5,24-dien-3β-ol into cucurbitacin C by seedlings of Cucumis sativus. Phytochemistry 22: 909-913
Broadbent P, Baker KF and Waterworth Y (1971) Bacteria and actinomycetes antagonistic to root pathogens in Australian soils. Australia Journal of Biology 24: 925-930
Broadbent P, Baker KF, Franks N and Holland J (1977) Effect of Bacillus spp. on increased growth of seedlings in steamed and nontreated soil. Phytopathology 67: 1027-1031
Chambliss O and Jones CM (1966) Cucurbitacins: specific insect attractants in Cucurbitaceae. Science 153: 1392-1393
Chen Y, Mei R, Lu S, Liu L and Kloepper JW (1996) The use of yield increasing bacteria (YIB) as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria in Chinese agriculture. In: Utkhede RS and Gupta VK (eds) Management of Soil Borne Diseases (pp 165-176) Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi, India
Cooper, R (1959) Bacterial fertilizers in the Soviet Union. Soils Fertility 22: 327-331
Denholm I, Cahil M, Byrne FJ and Devonshire AL (1996) Progress with documenting and combating insecticide resistance in Bemisia. In: Gerling D and Mayer RT (eds) Bemisia 1995: Taxonomy, Biology, Damage, Control and Management (pp 577-603) Intercept Ltd, Andover, Hants, United Kingdom
Dunleavy J (1955) Control of damping-off of sugar beet by Bacillus subtilis. Phytopathology 45: 252-257
Enebak SA and Reddy MS (1999) Seedling root and shoot growth of three southern pine species is enhanced with the addition of bacterial amendments to potting media. Phytopathology 89: S24 (abstract)
Görlach J, Volrath S, Knauf-Beiter G, Hengy G and Beckhove U (1996) Benzothiadiazole, a novel class of inducers of systemic acquired resistance, activates gene expression and disease resistance in wheat. Plant Cell 8: 629-643
Jorda CA, Alfaro A, Aranda MA, Moriones E and Garcia-Arenal F (1992) Epidemic of cucumber mosaic virus plus satellite RNA in tomatoes in eastern Spain. Plant Disease 76: 363-366
Kaper JM, Gallitelli D and Tousignant ME (1990) Identification of a 334-ribonucleotide viral satellite as principal etiological agent in a tomato necrosis epidemic. Research in Virology 141: 81-95
Kearney CM, Gonsalves D and Provvidenti R (1990) A severe strain of cucumber mosaic virus from China and its associated satellite RNA. Plant Disease 74: 819-823
Kenney DS, Reddy MS and Kloepper JW (1999) Commercial potential of biological preparations for vegetable transplants. Phytopathology 89: S39 (abstract)
Kloepper JW, Leong J, Teintze M and Schroth MN (1980) Enhanced plant growth by siderophores produced by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Nature 286: 885-886
Kloepper JW, Tuzun S and Kuć JA (1992) Proposed definitions related to induced disease resistance. Biocontrol Science and Technology 2: 349-351
Kloepper JW (1993) Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria as biological control agents. In: Metting FB, Jr (ed) Soil Microbial Ecology - Applications in Agricultural and Environmental Management (pp 255-274) Marcel Dekker, New York
Kloepper JW (1996) Host specificity in microbe-microbe interactions. Bioscience 46: 406-409
Kloepper JW, Rodriguez-Kabana R, Zehnder GW, Murphy JF, Sikora E and Fernandez C (1999) Plant root-bacterial interactions in biological control of soilborne diseases and potential extension to systemic and foliar diseases. Australasian Plant Pathology 28: 21-26
Kring JB, Schuster DJ and Price JF (1991). Sweetpotato whiteflyvectored geminivirus on tomato in Florida. Plant Disease Note 75: 1186
McGovern RJ, Polston JE and Stansly PA (1995) Tomato mottle virus. University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service Circular 143 pp
Metcalf RL (1986) Coevolutionary adaptations of rootworm beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) to cucurbitacins. Journal of Chemical Ecology 12: 1109-1124
Murphy JF, Zehnder GW, Schuster DJ, Sikora EJ, Polston JE and Kloepper JW (2000) Plant growth-promoting rhizobacterial mediated protection in tomato against tomato mottle virus. Plant Disease 84: 779-784
Palukaitis P, Roossinck MJ, Dietzgen RG and Franki RB (1992) Cucumber mosaic virus. Advances in Virus Research (pp 281-348) Academic Press, New York
Pieterse CMJ, van Wees SCM, Hoffland E, van Pelt JA and van Loon LC (1996) Systemic resistance in Arabidopsis induced by biocontrol bacteria is independent of salicylic acid accumulation and pathogenesis-related gene expression. Plant Cell 8: 1225-1237
Polston JE, Hiebert E, McGovern RJ, Stansly PA and Schuster DJ (1993) Host range of tomato mottle virus, a new geminivirus infecting tomato in Florida. Plant Dis. 77: 1181-1184
Raupach GS, Liu L, Murphy JF, Tuzun S and Kloepper JW (1996). Induced systemic resistance in cucumber and tomato against cucumber mosaic cucumovirus using plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Plant Disease 80: 891-894
Reddy MS, Rodriguez-Kabana R, Kenney DS, Ryu CM, Zhang S, Yan Z, Martinez-Ochoa N, and Kloepper JW (1999). Growth promotion and induced systemic resistance (ISR) mediated by a biological preparation. Phytopathology 89: S65 (abstract)
Scheffer RJ (1983) Biological control of Dutch elm disease by Pseudomonas species. Annals of Applied Biology 103: 21-26
Sherf AF and McNab AA (1986) Cucumber mosaic virus. In: Sherf AF and McNab AA (eds), Vegetable Diseases and Their Control (pp 354-365). John Wiley, New York
Schippers G, Baker AW and Bakker PAHM (1987) Interactions of deleterious and beneficial rhizosphere microorganisms and the effect on cropping practices. Annual Reviewof Phytopathology 25: 339-358
Sikora EJ, Gudauskas RT, Murphy JF, Porch DW, Andrianifahanana M, Zehnder GW, Bauske E, Kemble JM and Lester DF (1998) A multivirus epidemic of tomatoes in Alabama. Plant Disease 82: 117-120
Simone GW, Brown JK, Hiebert E and Cullen RE (1990) New geminivirus epidemic in Florida tomatoes and peppers. Phytopathology 80: 1063
Stansly PA, Schuster DJ and Leibee GL (1991) Management strategies for the sweetpotato whitefly. In:Vavrina CS (ed) Proceedings Florida Tomato Institute 1991 (pp 20-42) University of Florida, IFAS, Vegetable Crops Special Series SS-VEC-01
Tally A, Oostendorp M, Lawton K, Staub T and Bassi B (1999) Commercial development of elicitors of induced resistance to pathogens. In: Agrawal A, Tuzun S and Bent E (eds) Induced Plant Defenses Against Pathogens and Herbivores (pp 357-369) APS Press, St Paul, Minnesota
Tjamos E and Kuć J (1982) Inhibition of steroid glycoalkaloid accumulation by arachidonic and eicosapentaenoic acids in potato. Science 217: 542-544
Tomlinson JA (1987) Epidemiology and control of virus diseases of vegetables. Annals of Applied Biology 110: 661-681
van Peer R, Niemann GJ and Schippers B (1991) Induced systemic resistance and phytoalexin accumulation in biological control of Fusarium wilt of carnation by Pseudomonas sp. strain WCS417r. Phytopathology 81: 728-734
van Loon LC, Bakker PAHM and Pieterse MJ (1998) Systemic resistance induced by rhizosphere bacteria. Annual Review of Phytopathology 36: 453-483
Voisard C, Keel C, Haas D and Défago G (1989) Cyanide production by Pseudomonas fluorescens helps suppress black root rot of tobacco under gnotobiotic conditions. Journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) 8: 351-358
Wei G, Kloepper JW and Tuzun S (1991) Induction of systemic resistance of cucumber to Colletotrichum orbiculare by select strains of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Phytopathology 81: 1508-1512
Wei G, Yao C, Zehnder GW, Tuzun S and Kloepper JW (1995) Induced systemic resistance by select plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria against bacterial wilt of cucumber and the beetle vectors. Phytopathology 85: 1154 (abstract)
Wei G, Kloepper JW and Tuzun S (1996) Induced systemic resistance to cucumber diseases and increased plant growth by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria under field conditions. Phytopathology 86: 221-224
Yao C (1995) A biological control program for bacterial wilt disease of cucurbits. M.S. Thesis (pp 35-53), Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA
Yao C, Zehnder G, Bauske E and Kloepper J (1996) Relationship between cucumber beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) density and incidence of bacterial wilt. Journal of Economic Entomology 89: 510-514
Zehnder G, Kloepper J, Yao C and Wei G (1997a) Induction of systemic resistance against cucumber beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Journal of Economic Entomology 90: 391-396
Zehnder G, Kloepper J, Yao C and Wei G (1997b) Insect feeding on cucumber mediated by rhizobacteria-induced plant resistance. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 83: 81-85
Zehnder GW, Yao C, Wei G and Kloepper JW (2000a) Influence of methyl bromide fumigation on microbe-induced resistance in cucumber. Biocontrol Science and Technology 10: 687-693
Zehnder GW, Yao C, Murphy JF, Sikora EJ and Kloepper JW (2000b) Induction of resistance in tomato against cucumber mosaic cucumovirus by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. BioControl 45: 127-137
Zitter TA (1991) Diseases caused by viruses. In: Jones JB, Jones JP, Stall RE and Zitter TA (eds), Compendium of Tomato Diseases (pp 31-42) The American Phytopathological Society, St Paul, MN
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zehnder, G.W., Murphy, J.F., Sikora, E.J. et al. Application of Rhizobacteria for Induced Resistance. European Journal of Plant Pathology 107, 39–50 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008732400383
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008732400383