An air battle between good and bad bacteria: Airborne attenuation of Pectobacterium carotovorum virulence
C. RYU (1) (1) Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Korea

Plants have developed general and specific defense mechanisms to protect themselves from diverse enemies, including herbivores and pathogens. Among diverse signaling molecules, volatile organic compounds are recognized as a broad spectrum signals across kingdoms. Little is known on the role of bacterial volatile compounds (BVCs) within same kingdom like bacteria to bacteria. Our previous data showed that bacterial volatiles significantly change bacterial physiology including motility and antibiotic resistance. Here, we broaden our knowledge to evaluate whether volatiles from the rhizosphere bacterium Bacillus subtilis GB03 can modulate virulence of soft-rot disease bacteria, Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum. Using I-plates, the motility of the pathogens was decreased by volatile treatment in vitro. Exposure of bacterial volatiles in P. carotovorum subsp. carotovorum significantly attenuated pathogenicity on potato. Additionally, strain GB03 produced more than thirty low molecular-weight VOCs, of which 2,3-butanedione and 2,3-butanediol showed similar level of plant protection as the total BVC bouquet produced by GB03. Further examination revealed that these two BVCs modulate bacterial virulence factors related to symptom development. Our results provide new evidence that rhizobacterial BVCs can be new resources to protect crop plants against the pathogenic bacteria by modifying virulence.

Abstract Number: C4-2
Session Type: Concurrent