A Rapid Radicle Assay for Prescreening Antagonistic Bacteria Against Phytophthora capsicion Pepper

A rapid radicle assay for prescreening antagonistic bacteria to Phytophthora capsici,causal agent of Phytophthora blight of pepper was developed. Sixty-four bacterial strains with in vitroantifungal activity selected out of 1,400 strains isolated from soils of Ansung, Chunan, Koyang, and Paju, Korea in 1998 were used for development of the bioassay. Uniformly germinated pepper seeds dipped in bacterial cells for 3 hours were placed near the edges of growing mycelia of P. capsicion water agar containing 0.02% glucose. Five-week-old pepper plants (cv. Nockwang) were inoculated to compare with results of the radicle assay developed in this study. For plant inoculation, pepper seeds were sown in potting mixtures incorporated with the bacterial strains, then transplanted into steam-sterilized soils 3 weeks later. Plants were hole-inoculated with zoospores of P. capsici2 weeks after transplanting. Disease incidence and severity were determined in radicle and plant assessments, respectively. In radicle assay, six strains, GK-B15, GK-B25, OA-B26, OA-B36, PK-B09, and VK-B14 consistently showed the significant (P=0.05) disease reduction against radicle infection by the fungus, four of which also did in plant assessments. Strains OA-B36 and GK-B15 consistently reduced the fungal infection in both the radicle assay and the plant assessment. Therefore, prescreening strains using the radicle assay developed in this study followed by plant assay could reduce time and labor, and improved the possibility of selecting antagonistic bacteria for control of Phytophthora blight of peppers.