Foliar application of endophytic Wickerhamomyces anomalus against grey mould in Eucalyptus dunnii

ABSTRACT

Grey mould, caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea, is one of the diseases that occur in seedlings of Eucalyptus dunnii. The control of this disease is carried out mainly with chemical fungicides, but such use should be restricted to cases of high severity. An interesting alternative is the biocontrol using endophytic microorganisms. We assessed the antagonistic potential of endophytic yeasts from coffee beans against B. cinerea in vitro and their potential for biocontrol of grey mould in detached leaves and three-month-old seedlings of E. dunnii. Ten strains significantly inhibited the growth of B. cinerea in vitro (59.9–86.9%), and Wickerhamomyces anomalus showed the highest inhibition of the pathogen. In the in vivo assays, W. anomalus remained viable for 10 days after spraying on leaves and reduced the severity of the grey mould in E. dunnii detached leaves and seedlings. The results were statistically similar to those obtained with chemical fungicide when sprayed weekly. This is the first report of the effectiveness of endophytic W. anomalus as a suppressor of the development of grey mould in E. dunnii.

KEYWORDS:

• Biocontrol
• Botrytis cinerea
• eucalypt
• yeast

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Forestry for the support of this research. This manuscript was revised by EscritaLab (Karin Fehlauer-Ale and Ana Dal Molin).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Carolina Gracia Poitevin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3169-3933

Ida Chapaval Pimentel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1840-1748

Celso Garcia Auer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4916-2460