Chitin-supplemented foliar application of Serratia marcescens GPS 5 improves control of late leaf spot disease of groundnut by activating defence-related enzymes

Abstract

Chitinolytic Serratia marcescens GPS 5 and non-chitinolytic Pseudomonas aeruginosa GSE 18, with and without supplementation of chitin, were tested for their ability to activate defence-related enzymes in groundnut leaves. Thirty-day-old groundnut (cv. TMV 2) plants pretreated with GPS 5 and GSE 18 (with and without supplementation of 1% colloidal chitin) were challenge inoculated after 24 h with Phaeoisariopsis personata, the causal agent of late leaf spot (LLS) disease of groundnut. GPS 5 and GSE 18, applied as a prophylactic spray, reduced the lesion frequency by 23% and 67%, respectively, compared with control. Chitin supplementation had no effect on the control of LLS by GSE 18, unlike GPS 5, which upon chitin supplementation reduced the lesion frequency by 64%, compared with chitin alone. In a time course study the activities of chitinase, β-1,3-glucanase, peroxidase and phenylalanine ammonia lyase were determined for the different treatments. There was an enhanced activity of the four defence-related enzymes with all the bacterial treatments when compared with phosphate buffer and colloidal chitin-treated controls. In correlation to disease severity in bacterial treatments, chitin-supplemented GSE 18 was similar to GSE 18, whereas chitin-supplemented GPS 5 was much more effective than GPS 5, in activation of the defence-related enzymes. The high levels of enzyme activities following chitin-supplemented GPS 5 application continued up to the measured 13 days after pathogen inoculation.