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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2005, p. 4203-4213, Vol. 71, No. 8
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.8.4203-4213.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Impact of Plant Species and Site on Rhizosphere-Associated Fungi Antagonistic to Verticillium dahliae Kleb.

Gabriele Berg,1* Christin Zachow,1 Jana Lottmann,1 Monika Götz,2 Rodrigo Costa,2 and Kornelia Smalla2

University of Rostock, Microbiology, Albert-Einstein-Str. 3, D-18051 Rostock,1 Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (BBA), Messeweg 11/12, D-38104 Braunschweig, Germany2

Received 2 September 2004/ Accepted 25 February 2005

Fungi with antagonistic activity toward plant pathogens play an essential role in plant growth and health. To analyze the effects of the plant species and the site on the abundance and composition of fungi with antagonistic activity toward Verticillium dahliae, fungi were isolated from oilseed rape and strawberry rhizosphere and bulk soil from three different locations in Germany over two growing seasons. A total of 4,320 microfungi screened for in vitro antagonism toward Verticillium resulted in 911 active isolates. This high proportion of fungi antagonistic toward the pathogen V. dahliae was found for bulk and rhizosphere soil at all sites. A plant- and site-dependent specificity of the composition of antagonistic morphotypes and their genotypic diversity was found. The strawberry rhizosphere was characterized by preferential occurrence of Penicillium and Paecilomyces isolates and low numbers of morphotypes (n = 31) and species (n = 13), while Monographella isolates were most frequently obtained from the rhizosphere of oilseed rape, for which higher numbers of morphotypes (n = 41) and species (n = 17) were found. Trichoderma strains displayed high diversity in all soils, but a high degree of plant specificity was shown by BOX-PCR fingerprints. The diversity of rhizosphere-associated antagonists was lower than that of antagonists in bulk soil, suggesting that some fungi were specifically enriched in each rhizosphere. A broad spectrum of new Verticillium antagonists was identified, and the implications of the data for biocontrol applications are discussed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Universität Rostock, Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Institut für Molekulare Physiologie und Biotechnologie, Mikrobiologie, D-18051 Rostock, Germany. Phone: 49 381 4986154. Fax: 49 381 4986152. E-mail: gabriele.berg{at}uni-rostock.de.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2005, p. 4203-4213, Vol. 71, No. 8
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.8.4203-4213.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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