Antagonistic Activity of Bacteria Isolated from Conifers of Tbilisi and its Surroundings Against Phytopathogenic Fungi

Urban tree mortality is a serious worldwide problem. The stressful ecological situation created by the globalization and climate change turned city trees even more vulnerable to impact of pests and pathogens. Many plant diseases can be managed using antagonistic microorganisms and biological control allows the host plant to survive. Isolation and studying of the antagonistic activity of endophytic bacteria against those pathogenic fungi, which are likely to cause massive diseases and dying of coniferous plantations in Tbilisi and its surroundings was the aim of the presented work. Some strains of the genus Bacillus with high antagonistic activity against several phytopathogenic mycelial fungi (A. alternata, A.infectoria, E. nigrum, C. spicifera, C. inaequalis, D. gregaria, D. iberica, D. sapinea) have been revealed using the bicultural techniques. Further study of these strains may be promising as biocontrol agents, both for disease prevention and control, especially in natural ecosystems, where the use of chemicals is strictly limited.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.