Molecular characterization of soil bacteria antagonistic to Rhizoctonia solani,sheath blight of rice

Bacillus pumillus MTCC7615 has been identified as a potent isolate against Rhizocotonia solani, the fungal pathogen causing sheath blight in rice. The study aimed at probing the role of a 23kb size plasmid pJCP07 of Bacillus pumillus MTCC7615 in its fungal antagonism towards Rhizocotonia solani. Plasmid pJCP07 was found to be involved in production of a fungal antagonistic compound as demonstrated by plasmid curing and conjugational transfer experiments. Tn5 insertional studies further confirmed that the plasmid pJCP07 of Bacillus pumillus MTCC7615 carries some of the gene(s) involved in production of compound antagonistic to Rhizocotonia solani. The plasmid pJCP07 is thus a mobilizable medium-sized plasmid carrying genes responsible for antagonism of Bacillus pumillus MTCC7615 towards Rhizocotonia solani.