Plant growth-promoting ability and control efficacy of Penicillium aurantiogriseum 44M-3 against sesame Fusarium wilt disease

ABSTRACT

Penicillium sp. 44M-3, previously isolated from soil samples in Sanmenxia City (Henan Province, China), was identified as Penicillium aurantiogriseum Dierckx based on sequence analysis of ITS-rDNA, β-tubulin, and calmodulin. In co-culture assays against 14 pathogenic fungi, the inhibition ratios achieved by isolate 44M-3 ranged from 42.90% to 66.0%. Optimising the culture medium conditions to maximise the production of inhibitory substances increased the average inhibitory activity of the filtrate by 44.25% compared to that of the original culture filtrate. Isolate 44M-3 secreted extracellular enzymes such as protease, cellulase, and β-1,3-glucanase on agar plates. Treatment with a spore suspension of isolate 44M-3 significantly reduced the incidence of Sesame Fusarium wilt (P = 0.036) in pot experiments, achieving a maximum control efficacy of 75.88%, which did not differ significantly from carbendazim treatment (P = 0.292). Treatment with isolate 44M-3 spore suspension increased the root length of wheat and dry weight of whole sesame, maize, and tobacco plants, likely due to the isolate’s ability to dissolve insoluble inorganic phosphorus and secrete siderophores and indole acetic acid. Consequently, isolate 44M-3 provides a promising candidate for plant growth promotion and prevention of sesame Fusarium wilt disease.

KEYWORDS:

• Penicillium aurantiogriseum
• biocontrol
• culture medium optimisation
• sesame Fusarium wilt
• growth promoting

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Dr. Duan Yinghui for supplying F. oxysporum f. sp. sesami 8F27 and to Dr. Qiu Rui for supplying F. oxysporum f. sp. nicotianae, P. nicotianae, A. alternata, and T. basicola. We are also grateful to the Sesame Research Center, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, for supplying sesame cultivars Zheng zhi 13 and Yama 16HJDP03.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

ITS-rDNA, β-tubulin, and calmodulin sequences of isolate 44M-3 (P. aurantiogriseum Dierchx) were uploaded to the NCBI database under GenBank accession numbers MN314873, MN325973, and MN325971, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA [grant number CARS-14], Key Project of Science and Technology of Henan Province [grant number 201300110600], and Key Industrial Chain Projects of Shaanxi [grant number 2019ZDLNY03-07].