Suppressive Effect of Soil Microbiomes Associated with Tropical Fruit Trees on <i>Meloidogyne enterolobii</i>

Plant-parasitic nematodes are one of the main biotic factors limiting agricultural production worldwide, with root-knot nematodes (<i>Meloidogyne</i> spp.) being the most damaging group. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of soil microbiomes, associated with various subtro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Milad Rashidifard, Hendrika Fourie, Samad Ashrafi, Gerhard Engelbrecht, Ahmed Elhady, Mieke Daneel, Sarina Claassens
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
Series:Microorganisms
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/10/5/894
Description
Summary:Plant-parasitic nematodes are one of the main biotic factors limiting agricultural production worldwide, with root-knot nematodes (<i>Meloidogyne</i> spp.) being the most damaging group. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of soil microbiomes, associated with various subtropical fruit trees, on the management of a <i>Meloidogyne enterolobii</i> population. Of 14 soil microbiomes tested for nematode suppression, 9 samples in the first experiment and 10 samples in the repeat experiment had significantly (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.05) lower numbers of eggs and J2 compared to the untreated control. The highest nematode suppression was recorded for SA12 extracted from a papaya orchard with a 38% reduction in the nematode population density. In addition, the presence of some bacteria (<i>Bacillus aryabhattai</i>, <i>B. funiculus</i> and <i>B. simplex</i>) and fungi (<i>Metarhizium marquandii</i>, <i>Acremonium</i> sp. and <i>Mortierella</i> sp.) was correlated to a higher suppression potential in some samples. Substantial variations were observed for the diversity of bacterial and fungal isolates among the samples collected from various crop hosts and regions. This suggests that the nematode suppression potential of different soil microbiomes highly depends on the abundance and diversity of fungal and bacterial strains present in the soil. The study confirmed that among all variables, soil dryness, pH, Fe, Zn, organic matter, altitude, and crop cultivar strongly influenced the soil microbial composition.
ISSN:2076-2607