Potential of phylloplane bacteria in the biological control of grey blight disease of tea (Camellia sinensis)

摘要

Attempts were made to isolate and select efficient bacterial strains from the tea phylloplane. A total of 889 bacteria were isolated from young tea shoot samples collected from various tea districts of southern India. They were screened and 16 efficient strains were selected. Further selection, based on their ability to produce various cell wall lytic enzymes, reduced the number of interesting strains to six. Spore germination and glasshouse studies indicated that at least two of these strains were potential antagonists, which can be used as bio-control agents against grey blight pathogen Pestalotiopsis theae.