biocontrol activity of halotolerant K20: A potent antagonist against (Tassi) Goid.

A halotolerant actinobacterial strain isolated from salinity affected soil of Eastern Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP), Uttar Pradesh, India, was characterised for its antagonistic potential against by dual-culture assay. It was shown to effectively inhibit the growth of with an inhibition zone of 27 ± 1.33 mm. Further the actinobacterial strain was evaluated for its plant growth promoting (PGP) properties and its ability to produce biocontrol related extracellular enzymes amylase, protease, cellulase, chitinase, gelatinase and urease. The results revealed that the actinobacterial strain had PGP potential along with positive assay for amylase, chitinase and urease. The interaction study between antagonist strain and fungal pathogen, performed by scanning electron microscopy technique revealed that the actinobacterium was able to damage fungal mycelia may be due to chitinase, establishing its role as a potential antagonist against . The actinobacterial isolate was characterised by 16S rDNA gene sequencing, and was identified as genera. The identified gene sequence was deposited to NCBI GenBank with an accession number KP331758.