Isolation and Characterization of Novel Biological Control Agent Clostridium beijerinckii against Meloidogyne incognita .

One of the most severe soil-borne pathogens in the world is the root-knot nematode ( Meloidogyne incognita ). Biological control is gaining more importance as environmental awareness increases. Thus, keeping this in mind, a total of 712 bacterial strains were isolated from 117 rhizosphere soil samples and investigated for potential biological control activity against M. incognita . Strain Sneb518 ( Clostridium beijerinckii ) was identified as having solid biocontrol activity against M. incognita . Sneb518 demonstrated significant inhibition against M. incognita , with J2 mortality reaching 90.73% at 12 h and with eggs hatching at a rate of 6.00% at 24 h, compared to a hatchability level of 29.07% for the control. Additionally, Sneb518 was excellent for enhancing seed germination. The seeds coated with a fermentation broth containing Sneb518 efficiently boosted the germination rate to 88.49%. The effectiveness and stability of C. beijerinckii Sneb518 against M. incognita were then further evaluated in a greenhouse. According to the pot experiment data, Sneb518 considerably ( p < 0.05) reduced the number of root galls and egg masses on roots and also significantly ( p < 0.05) increased tomato plant growth. C. beijerinckii Sneb518-treated tomato seedlings exhibited 50.26% biocontrol effectiveness compared to the control group. Our results demonstrate that C. beijerinckii Sneb518 can be a potential biological control agent against root-knot nematode disease and a biomass enhancer. This research will give new options for the sustainable control of root-knot nematode disease in tomatoes and other host plants.