Functions of lipopeptides bacillomycin D and fengycin in antagonism of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens C06 towards Monilinia fructicola.

In previous studies, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens C06 has been proven to be effective in controlling brown rot of stone fruit caused by Monilinia fructicola. When tested in vitro, cell-free filtrate of B. amyloliquefaciens C06 significantly inhibited mycelial growth and conidial germination of the fungal pathogen. This study aimed to determine the role of the antifungal compound(s) in the cell-free filtrate of B. amyloliquefaciens C06 by an approach combining a DNA-based suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method with MALDI-TOF-MS analysis. It was demonstrated that B. amyloliquefaciens C06 harbored two genes, bmyC and fenD, involved in biosynthesis of bacillomycin D and fengycin, two lipopeptides belonging to the iturin and fengycin family, respectively. To determine the roles of bacillomycin D and fengycin of B. amyloliquefaciens C06 in suppressing M. fructicola, the mutants of B. amyloliquefaciens C06 deficient in producing bacillomy- cin D, fengycin or both were constructed, and evaluated in vitro together with the wild-type B. amyloliquefaciens C06. The results indicated that bacillomycin D and fengycin jointly contributed to the inhibition of conidial germination of M. fructicola, and fengycin played a major role in suppressing mycelial growth of the fungal pathogen.