Author(s)

Omar Hammoudi, Mazen Salman, Ruba Abuamsha, Ralf-Udo Ehlers

Agriculture Scientific Research Center, Lattakia, Syria.
Department of Biotechnology & Biological Control, Institute for Phytopathology, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
National Agriculture Research Center (NARC), Jenin, Palestine.
Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie (PTUK), Tulkarm, Palestine.

Blackleg disease caused by Phoma lingam is an important disease of oil seed rape (Brassica napus) causing losses up to 95%. The efficacy of microbial antagonists against P. lingam in greenhouse was tested. Serratia plymuthica HRO-C48 and Gliocladium catenulatum J1446 were able to reduce the disease intensity of OSR cotelydones infested with P. lingam at rates 44% and 52% respectively. The reduction of the infestation of the root collar in BBCH14/15 was evaluated as well. Plants treated with a suspension of the antagonists (2 × 105 cfu/plant) and inoculated with either pycnidiospore suspension (2 × 107 cfu/ml) or agar disks grown with P. lingam mycelium, showed a reduced infestation rate of 53% - 93% in the presence of S. plymuthica and 46% - 77% in the presence of G. catenulatum. The efficacy of the antagonist depends highly on their concentration inside OSR seeds. Below 105 cfu/seed no significant difference was recorded between control untreated and infested plants.

Biological Control; Oilseed Rape; Phoma lingam; Bacteria

O. Hammoudi, M. Salman, R. Abuamsha and R. Ehlers, "Effectiveness of Bacterial and Fungal Isolates to Control Phoma lingam on Oilseed Rape Brassica napus," American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 6, 2012, pp. 773-779. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2012.36093.