Bacillus velezensis 83 a bacterial strain from mango phyllosphere, useful for biological control and plant growth promotion

Bacillus velezensis83 was isolated from mango tree phyllosphere of orchards located in El Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico. The assessment of this strain as BCA (biological control agent), as well as PGPB (plant growth-promoting bacteria), were demonstrated through in vivo and in vitro assays. In vivo assays showed thatB. velezensis83 was able to control anthracnose (Kent mangoes) as efficiently as chemical treatment with Captan 50 PH (TM) or Cupravit hidro (TM). The inoculation ofB. velezensis83 to the roots of maize seedlings yielded an increase of 12% in height and 45% of root biomass, as compared with uninoculated seedlings. In vitro co-culture assays showed thatB. velezensis83 promotedArabidopsis thalianagrowth (root and shoot biomass) while, under the same experimental conditions,B. velezensisFZB42 (reference strain) had a suppressive effect on plant growth. In order to characterize the isolated strain, the complete genome sequence ofB. velezensis83 is reported. Its circular genome consists of 3,997,902 bp coding to 3949 predicted genes. The assembly and annotation of this genome revealed gene clusters related with plant-bacteria interaction and sporulation, as well as ten secondary metabolites biosynthetic gene clusters implicated in the biological control of phytopathogens. Despite the high genomic identity (> 98%) betweenB. velezensis83 andB. velezensisFZB42, they are phenotypically different. Indeed, in vitro production of compounds such as surfactin and bacillomycin D (biocontrol activity) and gamma-PGA (biofilm component) is significantly different between both strains.