Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), is one of the most widely grown vegetables throughout the world. The bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) causes bacterial speck disease on tomatoes. Several control strategies are performed for disease management, for example with bacteriophages, which are natural enemies of bacteria and extremely specific to their targeted hosts without affecting any other bacteria.
In this study, isolation of Pseudomonas syrin-gae pv. tomato-lysing bacteriophages, the potential of bacteriophages as biological control agents, and the efficacy of phages on other tomato infecting and sapro-phytic bacteria were investigated. Samples of tomato plants with typical symptoms of bacterial speck disease were collected from 17 tomato fields, 12 greenhouses, and 4 nurseries in Adana and Mersin provinces in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey. The plaques (inhibition zones) were observed after 36 hours of incubation, and 47 putative bacteri-ophages were purified.
Among the obtained bacteri-ophages, phage PH 33 isolate completely (100%) suppressed the growth of pathogens and increased the germination rate by 14.6%, whereas the phage PH 34 suppressed the pathogen by 65.8% and increased the germination rate by 21.6%. These phages (PH 33 and PH 34) had no inhibition effect on the other tomato bacterial diseases and the sapro-phytic bacterial flora on tomatoes. Both bacterio-phages were specific to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato.
Read the complete research at www.researchgate.net.
Cemen, Aziz & Saygili, Hikmet & Horuz, Sumer & Aysan, Yesim. (2021). POTENTIAL OF BACTERIOPHAGES TO CONTROL BACTERIAL SPECK OF TOMATO (PSEUDOMONAS SYRINGAE pv. TOMATO). Fresenius Environmental Bulletin. 27. 9366-9373.