Biological control of bacterial spot of tomato caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria by Rahnella aquatilis

Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria strain 2 was isolated from infected tomato seedlings grown in open field in Egypt. This strain produced irregular yellow-necrotic areas on tomato leaves and spotting of the stem. In an attempt to control this disease biologically, four experiments were conducted and tomato seedlings were pretreated, before the pathogen, with either of two antagonistic strains of Rahnella aquatilis through leaves, roots, soil or seeds. In all experiments, seedlings pretreated with R. aquatilis showed reduced susceptibility toward X. c. pv. vesicatoria. They also contained reduced protein concentration and showed reduced number of protein bands in SDS-PAGE analysis as well as increased fresh and dry weight relative to control seedlings inoculated with the pathogen only. This indicates that R. aquatilis reduced the deleterious effect and the stress exerted by X. c. pv. vesicatoria on tomato seedlings. Foliar application of R. aquatilis was the most effective method in disease reduction which could be attributed to the direct effect of the antagonistic bacteria on the pathogen. The highest amounts of fresh and dry weight ere obtained from seed treatment, which might suggest that bacterial seed inoculation provides earlier protection than could be achieved with foliar, soil or root treatment.