Plant-specific selection of drought-resistant biological control agents against soil-borne pathogens

摘要

Desert agriculture is a strongly growing field of land use. However, emerging problems with soil-borne pathogens limit the yield. Biological control agents (BCAs), which are able to suppress soil-borne pathogens, are promising candidates for plant protection but for desert application specific, drought-resistant strains are required. Here we report a stepwise selection procedure of BCAs from one of the most prominent organic desert farms SEKEM in Egypt. In a first step, we characterized the bacterial and fungal communities of the target habitat - the rhizospheres and endorhiza of medical plants {Matricaria chamomilla L., Calendula officinalis L. and Solarium distichum Schumach. & Thonn.). The bacterial communities were highly different - for the plant species as well as for both investigated microenvironments.