Microorganisms (Mar 2024)

A Novel Strain of <i>Bacillus cereus</i> with a Strong Antagonistic Effect Specific to <i>Sclerotinia</i> and Its Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis

  • Wanfu Ma,
  • Jinhao Ding,
  • Qingyun Jia,
  • Qianru Li,
  • Shanhai Jiao,
  • Xupeng Guo,
  • Chengming Fan,
  • Yuhong Chen,
  • Zanmin Hu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12030611
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 3
p. 611

Abstract

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Sclerotinia, which is caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, is a severe disease of oilseed rape, which is an important oil crop worldwide. In this study, we isolated a novel strain of Bacillus cereus, named B. cereus HF10, from the rhizosphere soil of the reed on the seaside of Yagzhou Bay, Sanya city, Hainan Province, China. HF10 exhibited a significant antagonistic effect on Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, with an inhibition rate of 79%, and to other species in Sclerotinia, but no antagonistic effect was found on various other fungi or bacteria. HF10 had an 82.3% inhibitory effect on the S. sclerotiorum infection of oilseed rape leaves and a 71.7% control effect on Sclerotinia infection in oilseed rape based on in vitro and in vivo experiments, respectively. The genomics and transcriptomics of HF10 and its loss of the antifungal function mutant Y11 were analyzed, and the results provided insight into potential antifungal substances. Our work provides a novel strain, HF10, for developing a promising biological control agent against Sclerotinia, which infects oilseed rape and other plants.

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