Research Progress on the Prevention and Control of Plant Diseases by Bacillus velezensis

Abstract

Overuse of chemical pesticides for a long time has caused problems such as environmental pollution, increased resistance of microbial pathogens and excessive pesticide residues. Therefore, the use of biological control measures to reduce or replace chemical pesticides is the focus of the current national development of plant disease control. Biocontrol microorganisms have been widely used in crop disease prevention and control because of their green characteristics. Microbial pesticides can effectively control plant diseases, promote crop growth, and achieve the purpose of reducing the use of chemical pesticides. It is an important direction to promote the green prevention and control of plant diseases. Bacillus spp. is a kind of common biocontrol bacteria in microbial pesticide research and application. B. velezensis, as one of the new microbial pesticide biocontrol bacteria, has a wide distribution in nature, and can be obtained from marine, river sediment, soil, plant roots, plant tissues, animal intestines, etc. It has great development potential in the application of microbial pesticides because of its low toxicity, no pollution, wide antibacterial spectrum, strong stress resistance and ability to secrete a variety of antibacterial substances. B. velezensis controls plant diseases by producing antimicrobial substances, nutrient competition, and triggering systemic resistance responses in plants. This paper summarized the development history of B. velezensis including discovery, identification and naming, describes the biological properties and mechanism of action of its related strains, including antagonism, bacteriolysis, induction of plant resistance, competition, promotion of plant growth, etc., and reviewed the research results of B. velezensis for the biocontrol of plant fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and viruses as well as the development of the formulation, with a view to providing references to future research and applications of B. velezensis.

Keywords

• bacillus velezensis
• taxonomic status
• physiology and biochemistry
• mechanism of action
• disease prevention and control
• formulation