Environmental fate and behaviour of the biocontrol agent Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CPA‐8 after preharvest application to stone fruit

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain CPA‐8 has been described as an effective biocontrol agent to control brown rot in stone fruit for both preharvest and postharvest applications. However, no information about the environmental fate and behaviour of this strain under field conditions is available. RESULTS: The dispersion of the CPA‐8 application was evaluated using water‐sensitive papers, and complete coverage was observed on the leaves of treated trees, while <1% of non‐treated tree leaves had CPA‐8. CPA‐8 persisted on the fruit of treated trees during preharvest and postharvest conditions, while a significant decrease on leaves and weeds was observed 21 days after treatment. On non‐treated trees, CPA‐8 was detected on leaves until 180 days after treatment, and on weeds, the CPA‐8 population was dependent on the distance from the treated trees. A high persistence of CPA‐8 was detected on inert materials, such as clothes and gloves worn by handlers and plastic harvesting boxes. More than 99% of the samples with a CPA‐8 phenotype were confirmed as CPA‐8 using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). CONCLUSION: This work demonstrated a good distribution, persistence and adaptation of the CPA‐8 strain to field and postharvest conditions. Monitoring of dispersion and persistence is an excellent tool to determine the time of application and provides valuable information for registering issues.

This research was supported by the European project BIOCOMES FP7-612713 and by the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) through PhD grant 2014-FI-B00367 (Amparo M. Gotor). The authors also thank CERCA Program (Generalitat de Catalunya) and the technical support provided by Cèlia Sánchez and Oana Bercea