for Controlling Bacterial Heart Rot in Pineapple var. MD2.

Bacterial heart rot (BHR) disease caused by pathogenic bacteria, , is one of the destructive diseases of pineapple worldwide. This study explored the potential of against the BHR pathogen and . The BHR causal pathogen was isolated from symptomatic pineapple plants, demonstrating water-soaked and rotten basal tissues. Biological control agent (BCA) was isolated from asymptomatic pineapple leaves, later confirmed as , and subsequently tested for the antagonistic activity against the BHR pathogen via disc diffusion assay and glasshouse trial. showed the ability to inhibit the growth of BHR pathogen with 18.10 ± 0.36 mm of inhibition zone in diameter. The ability of against the BHR pathogen was further confirmed via the glasshouse trial with five treatments. The results showed that treatments with inoculation recorded lower disease severity index of 0.04 ± 0.01 than the positive control treatment with pathogen alone (0.53 ± 0.04). This finding indicated that has a great potential as BCA against BHR disease in pineapple var. MD2, however, the effectiveness of this isolate needs to be further tested under actual field conditions.